Milla Jovovich reveals iconic Fifth Element look had unfortunate side effects

The actor says her dark hair was growing ‘very fast’ when she dyed it orange for the movie

Milla Jovovich has revealed that her iconic hairstyle on Fifth Element had some unfortunate side effects.

In the 1997 science fiction film, directed by Luc Besson, Jovovich played Leeloo, who was sent to Earth to help protect the planet from being destroyed by a huge fireball. For the role, Jovovich’s naturally brown hair was even dyed bright orange, with blonde roots.

According to the actor, when Besson styled her hair for that movie, he wanted it to be a color that stood out.

“Luc definitely wanted to do a color for the hair that has never been seen before,” she explained during an interview with GQ, published on Thursday. “They came up with this fluorescent orange and the blonde roots. It was almost like people working at night on the roads, when they need to be seen, and they would wear that kind of orange so you don’t get hit by cars.”

However, Jovovich said that keeping up with the orange color, while working on the film, was more “difficult” than she expected.

“What we didn’t realize at the time was that my hair grows very fast,” she added. “[My roots] would grow out literally every week you would start seeing, like, that little bit of dark hair. They kept trying to touch it up, but you have to be very delicate.”

She noted that as the hairstylists tried to avoid coloring parts of her hair that had already been dyed, that still happened. This resulted in a lot of damage to her hair.

“It overlapped,” she said about the dye. “And then my hair started falling out in clumps and so we had to wig me.”

Milla Jovovich said her hair came out in clumps when she kept dying for her role in ‘The Fifth Element’ (Getty Images / Columbia Pictures)

However, Jovovich said that the filming of her scenes was timed out well, and the first time she wore the wig was after her character took a shower.

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“So it kind of made sense that it was a little like poofier and more clean looking,” she explained.

Jovovich has previously opened up about her iconic wardrobe, built by Jean Paul Gaultier, for The Fifth Element. During an interview with Vogue in 2022, she opened up about her white, cut-out bodysuit, which her character after she was first created, through genetic engineering.

“Being in a hospital, they put a robe on you that is open in the back so they can reach in and put injections and tubes,” she said. “So you have to have as little as possible, but for the sake of modesty, you have to cover up…. When people get wounded, like, they just put bandages to cover the necessary bits. And Luc and Jean Paul talked about this bandage idea, and Jean Paul was like, ‘Genius! I love it.’”

She also recalled how thrilled she was when she found out she got the role of Leeloo.

“I can’t even describe how happy I was. This was really a dream come true,” the Resident Evil star said. “I knew that this character was beyond unique and she was something that had never been seen before.”