Mackenzie Crook’s daughter cried and his mum feared he was ill after seeing his shocking transformation for new role
MACKENZIE Crook's physical transformation for his latest role is so shocking that it caused his daughter to burst into tears and his mum to assume he had cancer.
The 46-year-old says he was delighted to be offered the role as Druid leader but didn't realise the devastating affect that the way he looked would have on his loved ones.
Mackenzie has always played characters who have full heads of hair, but when he was offered the part of Veran he knew he'd have to shave his locks and keep his head bald for the six months duration of filming.
But it was a look that desperately upset his nine-year-old daughter, Scout.
Mackenzie revealed: “My daughter cried. I took her aside and said, ‘You know I’m gonna have to shave my head,’ and she was so upset."
“But she soon got used to it. Although it is a strange thing to have a shaved head – people react very strongly to it.”
The former star explains that going from having hair to having none makes people assume the worst.
The dad-of-two continued: “I thought I’d told everyone about it – but I forgot to tell my mum. I went to visit her and I had a beanie on and as I stepped in I took it off and she yelped."
“She had jumped to the conclusion there was some treatment I must be having and had bravely not told her."
Mackenzie's new role sees him play Veran - a 10,000 year-old mysterious character who was supposedly the second man ever to set foot on planet earth.
In 43AD his word is law, as the tribes people believe he speaks for the gods which gives him and his Druids immense power.
Mackenzie was thrilled to be asked to play Veran, although he doesn't think he was the first choice.
“I’m usually offered smaller character roles, comic roles, so the opportunity to play this enigmatic, charismatic leader of the Druids, I couldn’t pass up.”
“I imagine I wasn’t the first choice but I’m not going to ask too many questions about that,” he laughs. “As far as I’m concerned, the role is mine.”
And if his new look takes you some time to get used to, it took him longer as he reveals he didn't get used to it for the entire time he was in character.
“For the whole time, I’d be walking past a mirror and I’d have forgotten. It was massive, it dominated my life.”
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