Even before meeting Peter Tothpal, one senses that he will be effusive and buoyant — you don’t repeatedly work with as many A-listers as he did throughout his career as a hairstylist without bringing a certain ebulliency to set.
“I’m just a happy camper,” he told IndieWire regarding his recently announced Lifetime Achievement honor from the MUAHs Guild Awards. “I’m always looking at the bright side, and it worked out for me. I feel very lucky to be able to work with the people who I really like.”
That attitude isn’t just the side effect of being feted for his career; Jennifer Garner singled it out as one of the main reasons she always requested Tothpal for her projects. “ It’s hard to talk about Peter without talking about his affable, easygoing, warm [personality],” she told IndieWire. “He has an EQ of about a million. I’m distraught that he’s retiring. He kept threatening it for years, and I kept being like, ‘Come on, come back, I don’t work so much! I take really big breaks to be home, it’s just every now and then.’ But no, he finally said, ‘OK, I really mean it. I’m really done now.’”
Originally from Hungary, Tothpal’s career has taken him around the world and through a dizzying microcosm of the ebbs and flows of the film industry over the last 45 years. He’s worked on everything from ’80s comedies (“Mannequin”) to period dramas (“Love in the Time of Cholera”) and superhero movies (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”). And notably, he spent 20 years working with Arnold Schwarzenegger, beginning with “The Terminator.”
Tothpal first met James Cameron in the early ’80s, and he was on board when Cameron called about doing hair on “a low-budget, small movie” that ultimately became “The Terminator.” “I said, ‘Hey, Jim, of course I am going to do it for you,’” Tothpal said. “Then he says, ‘Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to be the star. You know, the bodybuilder.’ I said, ‘Oh, no, do I have to work with an iron brain?’” Tothpal laughed at how wrong he was. “Of course, I met Arnold and, of course, realized that he’s a fantastic man, very smart, and a great attitude. It was just so much fun to work with him. We traveled all over the world. It was just a wonderful life being next to Arnold, and I learned a lot.”
For a man whose career encompassed so many genres, Tothpal has a ready answer when asked if he preferred one over the rest: period dramas. Not surprising, given that he was the hair department head on “Deadwood.”
“Back in the 80s, when I started my career, that was basically almost like two separate hairstylists, one for TVs, one for features. And, of course, with snubs, ‘Oh, that’s TV.’ Then I got called for ‘Deadwood,’ and being a period [project], of course, I was very excited about it. And when I went to the set, I mean, it was so amazing. The details on the set and the costumes and everything. ‘Oh my God, that’s better than a feature.’ You know, it really changed my mind.”
Working on a series also included a home base, where Tothpal remembered even the extras knew his name on set. “That was a wonderful, warm experience,” he said. “We had time to really know each other for years, basically. But, you know, it’s also exciting to go from one location to another location. Again, what I told you in the beginning, I’m just such an optimistic person, and I just truly love what I was doing.”
