Paula Jai Parker’s “Friday” character was meant to look completely different.
The actress, 51, wanted Joi to have a twist hairstyle in the blockbuster 1995 film, but her on-set hairstylist wasn’t that experienced.
“She and I came up with the look for Joi. I booked ‘Friday’ and ‘Tales From the Hood’ at the same time, so I had to put the braids in,” Parker told Page Six Style.
“I requested blond twists and she didn’t know how to do [the style]. She was like, ‘Look … this is all I know how to do. So sit your ass still, because we got to be taking these in and out for like four months.”
The actress continued, “Every week she had to take [them] out because I was shooting both of the movies simultaneously … My character from ‘Tales From the Hood’ wore a wig, and there was no way I was gonna be sticking all those box braids up in a wig.”
As for Joi’s famously long red nails? “By profession [my hairstylist for the film] was a nail technician, so she would go to work and then she would come to set. She was 18 at the time and she just graduated from cosmetology school, so I was really a guinea pig.”
One thing that Parker did take from set were the tiny jean shorts that completed Joi’s look.
“I don’t know what happened to them,” she said. “I think they got lost in storage. You know how it is, when you move and you forget to pay your storage fee. But somebody’s wearing them shorts out there in the world.”
Parker is currently starring on Bounce’s “Family Time.”