Emmy Winner, 51, Says Iconic Role Left Her With Bald Spot
The actress suffered a harrowing hair mishap on set.
JC Olivera/Variety via Getty Images
Actress Linda Cardellini has revealed details of an early-career mishap that left her with a “bald spot.”
The 51-year-old actress has played many iconic roles throughout her career, winning a 2026 Emmy for her role in the dark comedy DTF St. Louis.
Still, none have left quite the mark on her body as her 2001 portrayal of Chutney Windham in the comedy Legally Blonde.
Her character needed voluminous, curly hair, but Cardellini, whose hair is naturally straight, revealed in a Wednesday interview with Elle that maintaining the style left her strands severely damaged.
Linda Cardellini as Chutney Windham in the 2001 comedy “Legally Blonde.”
IMDb/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
In the film, Cardellini portrayed a girl whose father was shot and whose stepmother was on trial. During her witness testimony, Windham said she was in the shower when the shooting occurred and did not hear anything.
The pink-clad protagonist, Elle Woods, played by Reese Witherspoon, solved the case by proving Windham lied, because washing her hair within 24 hours of getting a perm would have ruined it. Windham then admitted to being the real killer.
Linda Cardellini as Chutney Windham and Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods in the 2001 comedy “Legally Blonde.”
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
That hair wasn’t a wig, but all Cardellini’s, and the style came at a cost.
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She told Elle, “The curling iron burned a piece of my hair off, so for a long time I had a sort of bald spot.”
Still, Cardellini looked back on the film with fondness, praising its “really funny script.”
Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, and David Harbour with the award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series for “DTF St. Louis” at the 2026 Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.
Mike Blake/Reuters
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, published Oct. 6, Cardellini talked about taking on another iconic villain role in Peacock’s Crystal Lake.
The series is a prequel to the horror film Friday the 13th, portraying life a decade before the movie’s events.
Betsy Palmer as Pam Voorhees in the 1980 horror film “Friday the 13th.”
Paramount Pictures
Cardellini plays the original killer Pam Voorhees, previously played by late actress Betsy Palmer, but she won’t copy Palmer’s layered pixie cut, which she called “a pretty iconic look.”
“We were trying on wigs to see how it would look, and then we realized it’s 10 years before. Your hair in the ‘70s was not necessarily the same hair that it was in the ‘80s,” Cardellini said. “So it kinda didn’t make sense to keep that hair going for so long.”
Linda Cardellini as Pam Voorhees in “Crystal Lake.”
Matt Infante/Peacock
Cardellini said she was still “really interested” in the original hairstyle, but “Nobody else wanted it.”
Instead, she plays Voorhees with her own thick brown hair with blond highlights and bangs.
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