TEA LEONI IS A HANES GIRL FOR YOU KILL ME

Tea Leoni discovers her character’s personality through their undergarments.

You Kill Me star Tea Leoni literally creates her characters from the inside out starting with what kind of underwear they wear.

Tea says the style of panties tells her a lot about her character’s personality.

“I said to John Dahl, the director because the first thing I figure out about a character is what underwear they’re wear and what they’re hair is gonna be. Because it’s the first thing you put on. You could make all the jokes about this in the world but I’m adamant about it. This was the first time I’d ever worn Hanes in my life for a character for my life. That never appealed to me but I knew she was a Hanes girl. Once I had that down and I didn’t need to share that with John, then we talked about the hair.”

Tea is about to shoot Ghost Town in New York with Greg Kinnear and Ricky Gervais but she hasn’t quite figured out the character’s undergarments as yet.

“I don’t know what she wears yet. I don’t know what the underwear is yet. If I don’t know the underwear I can’t tell you anything about her. I think maybe she’s an archeologist or something. Until I get that underwear, she might be a Wu girl.”

The hair is also the thing for Tea who wanted a very specific military style in You Kill Me that resembled a cross between a pith helmet from Hogan’s Heroes and a Darth Vader helmet to reflect her uptight character.