Redheads only make up about 2% of the world’s population, yet there seem to be a lot of redheads in movies and tv. Several I can think of off the top of my head:
Amy Adams
Nicole Kidman
Bryce Dallas Howard
Julianne Moore
Isla Fisher
Jessica Chastain
Christina Hendricks
Seems like I see a lot of redheads in tv commercials too. Not that I’m complaining! I’ve always had a thing for redheads (I married one). So maybe this is cognitive bias on my part…?
Confirmation bias. Think off the top of your head about all the people in movies and TV who aren’t redheads.
(Also, if you are going to go by percentage of world population, you really should be wondering why there are so few Han Chinese in American TV and movies.)
About 4% of the population of the U.S. has red hair, so that’s probably the figure you should go by (even though you’re including some people from elsewhere). Here’s a list of natural redheads. I’ve checked a number of lists, and consistently there are more women than men on the lists of naturally red-haired celebrities. I wonder if there’s a tendency for more women than men to make it big in acting when they are natural red-heads. I can also think of more cases of actresses than actors who dyed their hair red:
(Allowing for the fact that what constitutes “red” may vary according to definitions).
Several of the ladies mentioned in the OP are not in fact, natural redheads. Adams, Kidman, Hendricks are blondes of various shades and Chastain’s natural hair colour is more of a light to rust brown.
I would absolutely say redheads are over-represented in endurance sports but that’s another thread.
Popular culture isn’t representative of the general population. Being attractive and/or distinctive goes a long way so it’s reasonable that you’d have more famous pretty red-haired women than you see in your typical grocery checkout line.
Wow, I thought you were wrong about Nicole Kidman but I googled it, and sure enough, she’s a natural blonde. I would have put money on her being a natural redhead-- I first saw her in Dead Calm as a very curly haired redhead and it sure looked natural to me. When she has blonde hair in a movie role it looks strange on her.
Actually though, if actresses are dying their hair red to get noticed in Hollywood, I’d say that bears out my premise somewhat.
It’s a simple and convenient way to make characters distinguishable. If you’ve got two characters, you can give them blond and brown hair, and they’ll look different. Introduce a third, and use red hair for the same reason. More than that, of course, and you’ll have to use unusual hair colors, or something other than hair color, but few movies have enough major characters that that’s necessary.
Don’t forget Laura Prepon.
This makes sense. I’d thought that the redheads in Caillou’s town were super studly and fecund.
Lately they’ve been underrepresented with several canonical gingers being turned black in comic based shows/movies. Jimmy Olson, Wally West, Mary Jane Watson, Little Orphan Annie… How in the world did Black Widow manage to only get cast as a blonde with her hair dyed? Oh right, she’s a giant star. Doesn’t explain the bad dye job on the guy playing Archie, though.
Last year, I think, Amy Adams on The Graham Norton Show said something about how having red hair in the US made you kind of sassy, but in the UK, you were just another ginger. Funny.
BMX Bandits. 1983. Film debut. Redhead.
Who was a natural brunette before That 70s Show and then dyed her hair blonde for a role. She kept it that way, apparently because she got more parts offered to her. Now she’s famous for her dark hair on Orange Is the New Black.
I changed my hairstyle, so many times now,
I don’t know what I look like!
Even actual redheads often have a different natural shade than what they typically sport. Bryce Dallas Howard comes to mind:
I know they’re disproportionally represented in this video:My Ginga by Double Recessive (NSFW lyrics, hence the double click)
I don’t know about pop culture but it always felt to me that there were a disproportionate number of red haired women in commercials. Not men.
Huh. Her IMDB page says she’s a natural redhead.
As I said upthread what actually constitutes “redhead” can vary.
It’s part-and-parcel of the fact that European-origin folks are over-represented in movies & TV out of proportion to their world demographics anyway (err, that’s considering global cinema rather than Bollywood, Nollywood, etc). So that needs to be factored in - what percentage of US whites are carrot-topped? If it’s closer to 8% there, coupled with the prevelance of dyejobs, it’s no longer so mysterious. Red hair stands out, so it’s an obvious choice for professional [del]narcissists[/del] actresses.
Then, there’s also a consideration that this is just current fashion, and wasn’t the case in past eras - how many 50s stars were redheads? Or the 70s? 90s?
2% seems about right – most actresses, burger commercial spokeswomen and such don’t have red hair.