27 Actors Hollywood Tried To Convince Us Were "Ugly"

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4 days ago

Recently, Reddit user Self-Aware-Dinosaur pointed out the classic trope of "movies where the obviously attractive actress is made to look ugly before the glamorous makeover," and people chimed in with their own examples. Casting unattainably gorgeous actors in "ugly" or "plain" roles — with or without the makeover — is frustratingly common in Hollywood, and only serves to reinforce impossible beauty standards. Don't believe me? Check out these gorgeous actors Hollywood actually tried to convince us were unattractive.
Laney from She's All That (played by Rachel Leigh Cook)
Suggested by u/Self-Aware-DinosaurThis is the most classic example, because all they do to make Jamie look "pretty" is put her hair down and take off her glasses...which kinda feels like it would give all young girls with glasses a complex. In what way could Rachel Leigh Cook ever be ugly because of glasses, and why are glasses even "ugly" to begin with? Dean really thought that Laney was the LEAST likely to be made beautiful and popular?
Mia from The Princess Diaries (played by Anne Hathaway)
Suggested by u/DVM11All they do is put makeup on Mia, take off her glasses, and straighten her hair!!! Again, CURLY HAIR IS NOT UGLY, and neither are glasses! She mainly looks better after because she's not making weird faces like in the before photos. It's always so funny to me when people react so wildly at school when she shows her new hair. And Anne Hathaway is obviously gorgeous, no matter what her hair looks like.
Allison in The Breakfast Club (played by Ally Sheedy)
Velma in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (played by Linda Cardellini)
Suggested by u/Benji_1984Cardellini is drop-dead gorgeous, and it's so funny to see them try to pass her off as unattractive and geeky. Even in her Velma outfit, she's pretty. Then, of course, in the second film, she transforms into a latex-wearing bombshell, and you're like, well, yeah, it's Linda Cardellini. Of course she's hot. (Side note: how did her hair grow between scenes???)
Bianca in The DUFF (played by Mae Whitman)
Suggested by u/PilzoyzThis one pisses me off so much. In what world is Mae Whitman the "designated ugly fat friend"??? I know Wesley says this doesn't always actually mean "ugly fat friend" but the fact that they frame Mae as this kind of character is the kind of thing that makes teenage girls everywhere feel really, really shitty about themselves.
Tai in Clueless (played by Brittany Murphy)
Suggested by u/corndogz99This is yet another example of Hollywood putting a beautiful woman in an outfit that isn't super femme, giving her curly hair, and not having her wear a lot of makeup, then saying that she's ugly or "tragic." Justice for curly-haired women everywhere!!! At least they did keep her hair curly.
Kate in John Tucker Must Die (played by Brittany Snow)
I always found this one so funny, especially because Kate's "makeover" to become hot literally just includes...straightening her hair. That is IT. There's a whole plot about how Kate is insecure because her mom is so hot, but like...she's Brittany Snow. Why was she cast as the "invisible" girl who's always overlooked or seen as a loser?
Art3mis/Samantha in Ready Player One (played by Olivia Cooke)
Gretchen in Mean Girls (played by Lacey Chabert)
Gretchen is established to be the "not pretty" one of the three by Regina. Now, Regina is maybe just being mean, but because she has no qualms calling Karen pretty, it seems like she actually believes Gretchen isn't. Except...Gretchen is gorgeous? She has brown curly hair compared to Regina and Karen's blonde straight hair, but other than that, I honestly can't figure out why Regina would suggest she's ugly. It's bizarre.
And also Janice (played by Lizzy Caplan)
Suggested by u/vjhcLizzy naturally has a very hot girl look, and their solution to making her "ugly" and weird was basically just hair gel and a lot of eyeliner. Sometimes I feel like Hollywood thinks "edgy" means unattractive. This is plenty of people's type.
Needy in Jennifer's Body (played by Amanda Seyfried)
Suggested by u/CheeseishI always find it funny when an actor plays the hot character in one movie, and then the awkward nerdy one in another. She's established as the "prettiest" one by Regina in Mean Girls, but here, Seyfried plays the nerdy Needy, who plays second-fiddle to Jennifer. Except she looks exactly the same as she does in Mean Girls, save for glasses and somewhat frumpy clothing. They do her dirty with her prom dress, but overall...she's still the gorgeous Amanda Seyfried.
Gracie in Miss Congeniality (played by Sandra Bullock)
Suggested by u/RyanKFace25They make the makeover scene look wildly intense, as if they basically have to re-engineer Gracie's entire body and face, and then she looks exactly the same after except she has straight hair and is wearing makeup. This only proves the point that Gracie was beautiful from the beginning — I mean, she's played by Sandra Bullock. Sure, she didn't have great table manners, but acting like Bullock is unthinkable as a beauty queen is completely unrealistic.
Natalie in House Bunny... (played by Emma Stone)
None of the Zetas were ugly, and some of them were straight-up gorgeous — like Emma Stone. I'm sorry, there's just no way I am ever going to see Emma Stone as the weird ugly girl, even dressed the way she is above. She just ends up looking like a hot librarian.
...and Skeeter in The Help (also played by Emma Stone)
This is another funny one where they don't even bother to change Stone's appearance in this flashback scene where she talks about boys calling her ugly. Her hair's just up. And in the rest of the movie, she's established as a misfit/the "loser" amongst the girls, even though appearance-wise, the only difference is that she has curly hair. She does get kind of a makeover moment where her hair is in a more traditional '60s style, but even before that, she stands out as completely gorgeous. I have a hard time believing boys at school called her ugly.
Josie in Never Been Kissed (played by Drew Barrymore)
Suggested by Sweaty-Jellyfish8461Ah, another tool for making a gorgeous actor look "ugly" — braces. Yes, Josie's fashion is terrible when she returns to school, and she's awkward, but it's still funny to see Barrymore playing someone unattractive when she's literally a Charlie's Angel.
Elphaba in Wicked (played by Cynthia Erivo)
Yeah, yeah, I know that the point is that she's green, which makes her ugly – not that her looks are bad. But she still has the classic makeover scene, where Galinda just has her wear her hair slightly back, and Fiyero makes a comment about how she's changed to fit in. Except..she looks exactly the same. Cynthia Erivo is gorgeous no matter what, too.
Carrie from the 2013 Carrie (played by Chloë Grace Moretz)
Suggested by u/thorn_95Moretz is so poorly cast in this role. I understand Carrie's issue is more that she's wildly sheltered and strange, but it still feels out of place to put what looks like a pouty Instagram model in the role.
And, for that matter, Carrie from the original 1976 Carrie (played by Sissy Spacek)
Suggested by u/natetheskate100At least Spacek plays the "sheltered freak" type of character with MUCH more realism, and her wide-eyed, sort of spacey look works out...but Spacek is still, obviously, gorgeous. It shouldn't be such a surprise that she looks pretty in the prom scene.
Sam in Sixteen Candles (played by Molly Ringwald)
Molly Ringwald played a plain, overlooked character pretty close in time to when she played an It Girl in The Breakfast Club, despite the fact that she looks basically the same in both roles. They even have the same hairdo. Ringwald is obviously gorgeous, as she is portrayed to be in The Breakfast Club, so it's ridiculous that she's supposed to be someone the romantic lead would never even look at in this film.
Aimee in The Spectacular Now (played by Shailene Woodley)
Aimee is supposed to be kind of invisible and not get romantic attention (though this is partly in her head)...except she's played by Shailene Woodley. Woodley is also portrayed as someone who would be easy for Ben to get to have sex with him in The Secret Life of the American Teenager because she isn't as pretty or popular as Grace or Adrian. I don't know why multiple projects made Woodley's characters out to be plain, because Woodley is the opposite of plain.
Sam in A Cinderella Story (played by Hilary Duff)
Again, this may just be an example of a mean character being mean, but Sam is definitely established as the overlooked, non-popular girl when she's played by Hilary Duff. She doesn't even really change her appearance for the dance — she just dons a mask over her eyes and wears her hair up. It's not even like she's prettier because she's in more makeup; most of her makeup is hidden by the mask!
...and the ugly stepsisters (played by Madeline Zima and Andrea Avery)
They look like completely normal teenage girls and aren't ugly by any means. Yet they're the butt of the joke and it's mocked that Austin would ever see one of them as Cinderella. Well...yes, considering they look nothing like the girl he met, but otherwise either one of them could've dressed up as Cinderella and looked just as glam.
Hermione in the Harry Potter series...(played by Emma Watson)
Hermione was supposed to be this buck-toothed, frizzy-haired girl, and then...they cast Emma Watson. They literally just gave up on trying to make her look like Hermione (i.e., with frizzy hair) by the third film. Although I will say, even the books fall victim to this trope. All she does at the Yule Ball is smooth her hair, and Harry doesn't even recognize her because she looks so pretty.
...and also Pansy Parkinson (played by Scarlett Byrne)
I know she's a minor character, but I still was shocked when I realized Scarlett Byrne was meant to play Pansy, especially after I saw her in The Vampire Diaries. Pansy is described as "pug-faced" a million times in the series, and then she's played by a literal Playboy Model.
Nadine from The Edge of Seventeen (played by Hailee Steinfeld)
I love this movie, but right from the start, they try to make us believe Nadine is ugly and that's just preposterous. Sure, they give her an awful haircut in the first few minutes, but she's still Hailee Steinfeld, and it makes no sense to keep suggesting she's not as pretty as Haley Lu Richardson. Also, Mr. Bruner keeps making comments about her horrible fashion, when she seems to dress like a completely normal high schooler to me. Her hair is even nicely curled and done-up the whole movie.
Katie in She's Out of Control (played by Ami Dolenz)
Suggested by strumpetsarefunThis is another older one, but basically, Katie gets a makeover at age 15 and starts getting more male attention, much to the chagrin of her father. I haven't seen the film, but from the photos, this is yet another example of an actor putting their hair down and taking their glasses off, and everyone acting like she's gotten a face transplant overnight.
And finally, Jamie from A Walk to Remember (played by Mandy Moore)
We'll end on another example of a star who played the popular girl in one film (The Princess Diaries) and the nerdy wallflower in another. Jamie is gorgeous from the start of the film, and she basically looks exactly the same in the scene where she sings and everyone notices her (in a notable example, they actually curl her hair this time for the magic, "now she's pretty!" scene). I know this scene is about her singing talent, too, but still. Landon (and their other classmates) really didn't realize she was beautiful before???
Now it's your turn — what other characters do movie and TV shows try to convince us are ugly, when really they're far from it? Let us know in the comments!