Copyright Us Weekly
Jaime King is opening up about what she said was an “intense,” emotional experience wearing a bald cap for her latest movie, Love, Danielle. “I didn’t want to look in the mirror. The day before [we filmed it], [transportation] was taking me home, and they’re like, ‘So how are you feeling about the bald cap scene?’ And I was like, ‘I think it’s a great scene,’” King, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing the film. “They’re like, ‘No, how are you feeling about the bald cap?’ And I never thought about that.” King recalled learning that while Jim Carrey filmed The Mask, he “worked with an expert at the CIA in order to handle the amount of pressure” that comes with wearing heavy prosthetics for an extended amount of time. “Because it’s like torture. So how do you handle torture?” she reflected, adding that after learning that bit of information, she “had anxiety for the whole night.” “Then when we finally did it, I was like, ‘Oh my God. How bad is it going to be?’And I know this is a very wild story, but it’s just the truth,” she added. King shared that the process took “four to six hours” because the cap “expands and contracts” with fluctuating temperatures. “Imagine, if you walk into air conditioning, right? It gets tight, like crazy tight,” she explained. “And it sort of snaps you back, and when it goes into heat, it gets loose, but you never know what it’s going to feel like, and so [it] really gives you the extreme [discomfort] of what it must feel like to actually go through it.” King added that it was a “super intense” experience, and it got to the point where she confided in writer and star Devin Sidell about how she was feeling. “I had such bad anxiety, I was like, ‘Dev, I can’t, I can’t do another, I don’t know what to do right now.’ This is what I’m feeling,” she recalled telling Sidell. “I’m like, ‘I’m feeling extraordinarily anxious.’” After hearing King out, Sidell, 45, decided to have the film crew take a break so King could get back into the right frame of mind. “That’s how people stick up for each other in life. That’s what we need to do for each other, no matter what you know, because it’s that sensitive,” King told Us. “This film is that sensitive. What’s going on is that sensitive to me.” King added that working on such an emotional project has made her more “vulnerable” when speaking about her experience with Love, Danielle, which follows a woman named Danielle (Sidell) who carries a BRCA gene mutation and she has to decide whether to undergo preventive surgeries to reduce her risk of developing cancer. King plays Danielle’s older sister, Amy, who is being treated for breast cancer. The film is based on Sidell’s real-life experience of learning she has the BRCA gene. “It’s such a beautiful film, and it’s so funny and it’s so genius, and Devin has dedicated her life to it. It is so important that people can see their experiences on screen, that they can see them and laugh, and that they can see the fact that life is messy and it’s beautiful, and we can have fun throughout the process and that we’re all just doing the best that we can,” she said. “Also, most importantly, go to a genetic counselor. Go get checked. Like all women, all people, we need to stand up for each other and encourage each other.” King also shared how her own personal experience being there for friends facing health battles affected her approach to Amy as a character. “When you go through each stage with people, when people have cancer and you’re their main caregiver, you see the whole process, obviously,” King said. “And so my level of understanding and empathy, of what it is like, is like through the roof. It’s, you know, and then I really wanted to keep it funny, so that it was more digestible, and the script, and Devin, who’s a genius, lends itself to that.” King confessed that she felt “incredibly privileged” to play Sidell’s sister in Love, Danielle, noting that she got the chance to speak to Sidell’s real-life sister, Holly, and hear her perspective about going through cancer treatment. “I spoke to Devin’s sister, and asked what her experience was when she was going through this particular kind of chemotherapy, which is called the Red Devil is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad and but good, good, good, good, good, because it saves lives, right?” she reflected, adding that a “pivotal scene” between her and Sidell “clicked” following her conversation with Holly. “Devin and I have a particular kind of chemistry that is, like, through the roof. I don’t know how to describe it. And we don’t hang out. We don’t go to coffees.” While King and Sidell don’t spend time together outside of work, the Hart of Dixie alum shared that she and Sidell “have each other’s hearts” when they’re together, which is why they’re dynamic plays so authentically on screen — particularly in scenes that involved the whole family. “Devin and I got to have so much fun,” she told Us. “We got to be like little mischiefs and with the secret and dealing with the family dynamics.” Love, Danielle is available to rent or purchase on demand.
