Emmy Winner, 51, Says Iconic Role Left Her With Bald Spot

Amy Sussman / Getty Images Actress Linda Cardellini has revealed details of an early-career mishap that left her with a “bald spot.” The 51-year-old actress has played many iconic roles throughout her career, winning a 2026 Emmy for her role in the dark comedy DTF St.

Louis.

Still, none have left quite the mark on her body as her 2001 portrayal of Chutney Windham in the comedy Legally Blonde.

Her character needed voluminous, curly hair, but Cardellini, whose hair is naturally straight, revealed in a Wednesday interview with Elle that maintaining the style left her strands severely damaged.

In the film, Cardellini portrayed a girl whose father was shot and whose stepmother was on trial.

During her witness testimony, Windham said she was in the shower when the shooting occurred and did not hear anything.

The pink-clad protagonist, Elle Woods, played by Reese Witherspoon , solved the case by proving Windham lied, because washing her hair within 24 hours of getting a perm would have ruined it.

Windham then admitted to being the real killer.

That hair wasn’t a wig, but all Cardellini’s, and the style came at a cost.

She told Elle, “The curling iron burned a piece of my hair off, so for a long time I had a sort of bald spot.” Still, Cardellini looked back on the film with fondness, praising its “really funny script.” In an interview with Entertainment Weekly , published Oct.

6, Cardellini talked about taking on another iconic villain role in Peacock’s Crystal Lake.

The series is a prequel to the horror film Friday the 13th , portraying life a decade before the movie’s events.

Cardellini plays the original killer Pam Voorhees, previously played by late actress Betsy Palmer, but she won’t copy Palmer’s layered pixie cut, which she called “a pretty iconic look.” “We were trying on wigs to see how it would look, and then we realized it’s 10 years before.

Your hair in the ‘70s was not necessarily the same hair that it was in the ‘80s,” Cardellini said.