RED ALERT

‘White Lotus’ Star, 57, Looks Unrecognizable in New Role

The actress got a distinctly 1970s makeover.

Parker Posey is turning up the heat with a striking new look.

The 57-year-old actress traded her familiar brunette locks for a fiery red, shoulder-length style in a new clip from her upcoming film, Wild Horse Nine, unveiled by People on Tuesday.

Posey wears her hair in a shaggy, layered lob with bouncy curls, pairing the bold color with electric blue eyeshadow for a distinctly 1970s makeover.

In the preview, she plays Marge, the wife of CIA agent Lee, portrayed by Sam Rockwell, 57. The two are locked in a heated phone argument as Posey cradles a yellow corded telephone and smokes a cigarette against a lush green backdrop.

When Lee asks about their children, Marge brushes him off.

“Oh, who cares? So anyway, I kind of accidentally slept with that lawyer guy again,” she says, casually admitting to another affair.

The political comedy, written and directed by Martin McDonagh, follows Lee and fellow CIA operative Chris, played by John Malkovich, 72, as they travel to Easter Island shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup.

Posey has previously spoken about her enthusiasm for shaping characters through their appearance.

“I’m a frustrated costume designer,” she told Nylon in March 2025. “It’s my favorite part of the process: how big a shoulder pad is, or what silhouette or color.”

Posey’s transformation sharply contrasts with the polished, dark-haired Victoria Ratliff she played in the third season of The White Lotus last year.

Her portrayal of the wealthy, medication-dependent Southern mother earned her a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards.

But the red-haired Marge is hardly Posey’s first dramatic hair experiment.

The actress has worn everything from jet-black pixie cuts in the early 2000s to sleek brunette bobs. She even sported burgundy hair at early-career red carpet appearances.

Her boldest color switch came in 2015, when she went platinum blond for the Cannes Film Festival.

Posey said she took the plunge after a designer friend persuaded her to coordinate her hair with a red-carpet dress.

“It’s not lost on me what it is to be an actress and go blonde,” she joked during a Film Society of Lincoln Center appearance⁠ that year, adding, “I’m working a lot more now!”

The platinum shade proved useful on screen, too. She kept it for her role as Hollywood talent agent Rad Taylor in the 2016 period comedy Café Society.

Posey later told Out⁠ that director Woody Allen thought the shade suited the character.

But going blond came at a cost.

“Oh my God, it was crackling,” she told The Guardian⁠ in 2016, describing her damaged hair after bleaching. Her stylist feared it could break off, she said.

The experiment did not win over everyone. Posey recalled New York neighbors telling her they had liked her old hair, a pointed reaction she took as criticism of the new color.

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That same year, she returned to brunette for the indie drama Columbus, directed by Kogonada, because her character needed dark hair.

The star has continued embracing playful beauty looks. At the 2026 SAG Awards, she paired a feather-trimmed pink Gucci gown with retro-inspired hair and makeup.

“Style has the ability to change how you feel inside,” she told Vogue⁠, adding that she was enjoying wearing more color and styling her hair with rollers again.

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Tamilore OshikanluContributor

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