When Josh Duhamel initially pops up on screen in Allan Ungar’s new action comedy “London Calling,” he’s barely recognizable. The perennially good-looking leading man went bald for his first few scenes.

“That was me trying to be Jason Statham for a second,” Duhamel tells me. “I was like, ‘OK, Allan, I got an idea. I really want to be bald because I want there to be a visual difference between the first part of this movie and when we see him a year later. I want to be bald, I want to be a badass, I want to look like a badass hit man, like Jason Statham.’ But then we realize quickly that he’s not quite that guy. In a movie that doesn’t have a ton of money, those bald caps are not cheap. That’s a full process. I think it was worth it. It tells that little story.”