The 10 Hottest Fake Redheads in Hollywood

When Gangster Squad opens Friday, audiences will again be treated to the sight of Emma Stone and her fierce, fiery locks. The red hair has become her calling card—too bad it ain't real.

Stone is one of many super-hot stars who is famed for store-bought red hair, and today (partly because of Stone) more and more celebrity babes are going red. But there are dilettantes, who'll be some other color next year, and then there are the girls who go red early and stay that way long enough that people assumed it's their natural shade. Well, for a surprising number of well-known gingers, it isn't.

Here are ten famous redheads who fooled a lot of people into thinking they were born that way.

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Natural hair color: Brown

Why she went red: It might have been for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show that set her on the path to stardom. Regardless, she was coy about it in an interview with the NY Post around the release of Date Movie (2006).

The Post asked, "They say that redheads are feisty. Are you feisty?" To which she responded, "I think the better question is, am I actually a redhead?"

Natural hair color: A dark or dirty blonde

Why she went red: Secondhand accounts suggest it was for her career-making role in The X-Files. In rehearsals for the show, Anderson wasn't a redhead, and her character Agent Scully wasn't a redhead in the scripts. But by the time the show was filmed and aired, she was. Is this fact-free story true? We want to believe.

Natural hair color: Brown

Why she went red: It was 1997, and Debra had scored a part on a TV series called Prey. She wanted to change her look, so shortly before filming started, she paid a visit to her hair stylist and his wife, a colorist. Speaking to Super-hair.net, the stylist described a six-hour session that required six different shades of red. And so it was the modern Debra Messing, red curls and all, was born. Prey didn't last, but within a year she was on Will and Grace.

Natural hair color: Blonde

Why she went red: Perhaps Richard Gere said it best in Pretty Woman (1990) when he first beheld Roberts as hooker Vivian out of her cheesy blonde wig:

She says, "Red." He says, "Better." No further discussion.

That's reason enough isn't it? One of Hollywood's most glamorous stars of the '90s went red simply because it was better.

Natural hair color: Strawberry blonde

Why she went red: She dyed it for Dr. Vegas, a TV show starring Rob Lowe that otherwise had no lasting influence. "I played a nurse and there was this beautiful blonde, Sarah Lancaster, who was cast as the casino dealer," Adams recalled for Backstage. "I'm in a room with her, and they said, 'Someone's going to have to change their hair color.' She's tan with these beautiful lioness green eyes and this mane of blonde hair. And I looked at her and me, with my pale freckles, and thought, 'Gee, I wonder which one of us is going to go red!'"

Natural hair color: Blonde

Why she went red: She dyed her hair for a high school play and never looked back. "I was quiet and reserved as a blonde," she told Stylelist.com. "But it’s like the red hair immediately unleashed this fiery personality I had inside."

Still, the fact wasn't front-and-center when she won the Miss USA 2011 contest. Many of her newly-minted fans were disappointed to find that her signature locks were dyed, but (let's face it) hotness trumps all, and she was forgiven.

Natural hair color: Blonde

Why she went red: She was a 14-year-old freshman in high school, and wanted to get noticed. "As a fair-skinned blonde, I disappeared into the background," she told Elle. "I’ve always been a loner, so I suppose dying my hair red was a way to say, 'I’m here, I exist, I’m a human being and you can’t just push me aside.' I’m also a fan of old movies, and was very into Rita Hayworth at the time. I always fancied someone might call me 'Red,' like Katherine Hepburn."

Natural hair color: Blonde

Why she went red: Judd Apatow told her to do it for Superbad (2007), and people do what Judd Apatow says. It turnedout to be a brilliant move; Emma's fake red hair became her calling card, and this fall, it was reported by InStyle that the most popular hair coloring requested in L.A. salons was that deep Emma Stone-crimson. Of course, by then, Emma had gone blonde to play Gwen Stacy in a couple of The Amazing Spider-Man movies.

Natural hair color: Blonde

Why she went red: Apparently, she wanted to as a small child, as she told People she got her first dye job when she was just 10 years old. “I recognize how odd it is now, but my mom let me do it," she says. "I was obsessed with Anne of Green Gables and Ginger of Gilligan’s Island, and lusted for that red hair.”

Natural hair color: Black

Why she went red: Few Hollywood stars were manufactured as deliberately and effectively as Hayworth. She was born Margarita Carmen Cansino in Brooklyn; both of her parents were in entertainment, and Rita was discovered in a father-daughter act, "The Dancing Cansinos," in Tijuana. The young Latin dancer showed potential and was obviously gorgeous, if only she wasn't so... Latin. The studio dyed her hair a lush red, gave her electrolysis to achieve a higher, more rectangular hairline, and re-introduced her using her mother's Anglo maiden name. Et voila, one of the great screen sirens in movie history.