‘Barry’ star Anthony Carrigan stuck with acting even though he was told he was ‘not attractive’ due to alopecia
He’s got nothing to hide here.
“Barry” star Anthony Carrigan, who plays NoHo Hank on the HBO hit, is opening up about his struggle with alopecia areata, which causes hair loss, and how it taught him to embrace himself for who he is.
“There was a moment where my alopecia had progressed so much so that I had lost pretty much half [of] my scalp, both my eyebrows [and] all my eyelashes,” 39-year-old Carrigan — who was 3 when he received his diagnosis — told People in a new interview. “It really threw everyone that I was working with and no one knew what to do with me.”
“I was told by a number of people, you’re not going to be able to do this,” he told the outlet, referring to acting. “You’re not attractive anymore. You will fail if you try to do this.”
Those discouraging sentiments ended up giving Carrigan, also known for “Gotham,” the push he needed.
“I’m one of those people that if you told me that I can’t do something, I will,” said Carrigan. “Period.”
Though it took “a series of baby steps to accept” his alopecia, Carrigan shared that “talking about it was very therapeutic,” and remains so.
“I’m strangely very grateful for this experience and how much it taught me about radical self-acceptance,” he said. “It made me a better actor too, because I wasn’t hiding anymore. I wasn’t hiding under wigs, or makeup, or this projected self confidence, and instead what was replaced was real confidence.
“We’re also in a society that’s constantly telling us to change,” said Carrigan. “And my take on it is: you want to feel good about yourself, and that has very little to do with what you look like. It has everything to do with expressing who you are.”
The Oscars in late March put a spotlight on the hair loss condition after Chris Rock joked that the shorter hairstyle worn that night by Jada Pinkett Smith, who has been open about her struggle with alopecia, resembled “G.I. Jane 2.”
Pinkett Smith’s husband, Will Smith, leapt onto the stage to slap Rock, 57. Smith, who later that night took home the best actor Oscar for his starring role in “King Richard,” subsequently resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — followed by a 10-year ban on any academy events.
