It appears a popular YouTube video of a screaming bride-to-be with a bad haircut was actually spearheaded by a major hair product company.
Sunsilk Canada revealed Thursday that a video clip seen so far by more than 2 million people on the popular video portal YouTube was an "initiative" by the hair product company.
"We understand very much that women have these moments with their hair, and some of them end up in what we're calling 'wig-outs,'" spokesperson Geoff Craig told 麻豆影视.
He added that "it was certainly never our intent to do anything other than provide a dramatization of one of these moments from the get-go."
There had been widespread debate about the authenticity of the clip, titled "Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out."
As it airs on YouTube, the video appears to be an amateur recording of a young woman frantically chopping her hair off during a meltdown an hour before her wedding. It's not obvious that the video is a dramatization, nor that it's affiliated with any organization.
It was revealed earlier Thursday that the video, which even made it Wednesday onto NBC's The Today Show, was indeed fiction.
However, the 22-year-old aspiring actress playing the bride, whose real name is Jodi Behan, really did cut her hair in the video filmed by Toronto-based Ryerson University grad Ingrid Hass.
Behan told Canada AM Friday that she doesn't regret it.
"I mean, there's going to be lots of different things you're going to have to do for acting parts so why hold out?"
The girls say they did the stunt to promote their acting skills and as a way of getting their names out there.
"We're all actors so we're really excited for all the opportunities for everyone," Jessie Behan, the real-life sister of Jodi, told Canada AM.
The girls appeared on Good Morning America and and had been due to make an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. But when the producers told the foursome that only two could appear on the show, they turned down the offer.
In the six-minute clip, Behan enters a hotel room filled with bridesmaids and complains of her bad haircut.
Then, in a burst of anger, her character, also named Jodi, takes a pair of scissors and begins furiously cutting off her hair -- repeatedly telling the camera operator to stop filming.
Haas, a local performance artist, came up with the idea as a way to gain notoriety on YouTube.
"I would love to tell you all about it. I will have to hold off," Haas told the Toronto Star, without elaborating.
When asked if he thought the video was real, Toronto film director Norman Jewison told the newspaper on Wednesday that he suspected the video was staged. But he said he'd give her a job in an instant.
"Wouldn't you hire her as an actress? I sure would," Jewison said. "If she's not one, then maybe she should become one. It's hysterical."
