Cher’s Transformation: Unveiling Dolly’s Journey from Glamour to Grit in ‘Silkwood’ (1983)

One of the first major tasks that Cher had to tackle when she arrived on the location set for “Silkwood” (1983) was to find the right look for her character Dolly. In the beginning, according to Cher, Dolly was written as a “glamorous barrel rider.” They tried a screen test of Cher with that look, but Mike Nichols didn’t like it. Nichols told Cher to wash her face, then wash her hair and let it dry flat to her head without doing anything to it.

Then he and costume designer Ann Roth began to dress her in dowdy clothes, working hard to strip every trace of glamour from the usually picture perfect star. “They were just merciless with me, until I had on some horrible men’s bowling shirt and awful chino pants, with two pairs of jockey shorts underneath to make me look heavier,” said Cher. “When I stepped out in my new costume, Kurt Russell said, ‘What the f*ck are you supposed to be?’ I ran in tears to the back bathroom, which had the only mirror in the house, and I cried my eyes out.”

Cher was warned not to wear any make-up at all. “Mike would give me the white-glove test,” said Cher. “He’d run his finger across my cheek, to make sure I hadn’t snuck on a touch of something. Once I tried to cheat and curled my eyelashes, and Mike said, ‘Don’t do it again, my dear.’ He said it sweetly, but I got the message.”

Cher was nervous about meeting Meryl Streep for the first time. “I thought it was going to be like having an audience with the Pope,” she said. Streep, however, immediately put her at ease. “The first day on location,” Cher told People magazine, “Meryl just came up, threw her arms around me and said, ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’ She’s all communication and warmth and friendship with a great sense of humor.”

According to screenwriter Nora Ephron, Streep’s friendship with Cher helped create a fun mood on the set in the midst of making such a serious film. “They would do actress shtick, voices, fake fights, jokes. They were hysterically funny together.” Ephron added, “I can’t overestimate how that friendship made it possible for Cher not to be wildly nervous.” (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Cher!