Why would a lead actor (who is one of the main stars in multiple movies or multiple TV shows) not make their teeth look at least decent, or even great?
It’s somewhat bothersome to be watching an actor or actress who is otherwise great, who has visibly bad teeth. It’s distracting from the overall performance.
Two examples the pop to mind are Kristin Kreuk and Patricia Arquette. Both are attractive actresses with good delivery, but their teeth distract me from the rest of the performance.
I’ve been sitting in dentist offices, looking at pictures on the walls of “before” and “after,” demonstrating that dentist office’s skill in improving the appearance of other customer’s teeth. Some of the work looks truly amazing, and I’m in an office that accepts HMO.
I would assume that a multiple-show actor gets has access to better dental care than I do and could make their teeth look good.
It’s one thing to maintain a look for a character throughout one series, but when you’ve moved from one series to the next, wouldn’t you want to improve things?
Some actors go through a lot of work to alter their looks for a particular role, or even just to improve their marketability. Why are teeth low on the list for some actors?
Speaking of Kristen Kreuk, I’ve never even noticed anything wrong with her teeth, after googling for an image, she looks to have a single chipped tooth, and that has never particularly bothered me (since I’ve never actually noticed it…).
I think that you might just have too much emphasis on teeth, honestly. As long as their not grimy, yellow or horribly misaligned, they seem fine to me. Perhaps slight cultural differences? I’m American, so I’m from one of the more Orally vein societies, but I’ve just never seen anything wrong with having a bit of oral uniqueness.
It is odd that anyone would want to deviate from Hollywood’s “Twin Rows of Perfectly Uniform, Blindingly White Tombstones” beauty ideal, but I guess to some it’s just not that important.
I had mentioned Kristin Kreuk’s teeth to a friend when I was watching Smallville. He agreed that they were distracting. You might not notice it from an image you look up on the Web, but when they zoom in really tight on her face (so you can’t see her forehead or chin), and it’s being displayed on my HD Sony TV, and her teeth are visible for quite some time, it’s obvious to me.
And I’m watching Medium right now, and I’m seeing Patricia Arquette’s face (who’s very pretty) but her teeth are very distracting to me.
When I see a person over say 35 or 40 they SHOULD NOT have gleeming white teeth. Even if you brush daily and have no cavities, teeth are not gonna stay perfect white. It’s like having hair that’s perfectly one color. People don’t have that, it becomes obvious it’s a dye job.
But you can have temporary caps. Lucille Ball, Rita Hayworth and Dawn “Mary Ann” Wells all said they wore fake teeth throughout their careers, not because their teeth weren’t perfect enough. Those were caps but simply devices to put on and take off.
But look at Michael Phelp his mouth is all jacked up and it didn’t hurt him.
The thing I hate is you get those “Chicklet Teeth,” like Miley Cyrus and others and it’s even worse than missing teeth.
There are some dental conditions that defy orthodontics. I have very small teeth (so do my mother and brother) that have noticeable gaps between them. When I was younger, my mother inquired about orthodontics. She was told the teeth were properly positioned, just small, so that braces or whatever would simply crowd them together in the front of the mouth. So that was the end of that.
In my opinion, if I were into soaps it wouldn’t bother me to see actors with perfect teeth, it would just add to this “seemingly” perfect world. Perfect beauty, perfect hair, perfect teeth, poor acting. I expect full feature cinema actors on the other hand to not have pearly white, perfect teeth. I expect to be pulled into the movie by not just the story, but by the believability of the actors. If they look too fake, how successful can their acting be portrayed to viewers? Imagine Deniro, Pachino, etc… with pearly white perfect teeth. How would some of their great roles be perceived as today?
Steve Buscemi probably has some of the most jacked up teeth in the industry, yet adds alot of realism to his characters.
Caps are the best way for any good actor to choose. If the role calls for comedy where the role requires perfect teeth, then pop them in. (Like Matt Dillion, in “Something About Mary”:))
Eh, the only time I even notice that is if I’m watching something like a period piece. The same applies an absence of body hair (in either sex) in anything set before the 1920s.
Teeth like Patricia Arquette’s don’t bother me, but perfect white teeth do, particularly in a period piece. I just watched *3:10 to Yuma *and it really bugged me that Christian Bale’s teeth, in particular, were Hollywood-perfect on a character that fought in the Civil War, was a rancher in Arizona and most likely had little access to floss, fluoride, Crest and a Sonicare.
Period pieces are one thing, but I’m talking about present-day pieces. The TV show Medium is set present day, and I don’t know a person who I speak with face-to-face who has teeth that distract me as much as Patricia Arquette’s.
I never said people’s teeth need to be perfect. Heck, I have noticed (although I tend not to) imperfect teeth in people and am not bothered. I’m not talking about mild imperfections, or where teeth are slightly differently colored, or where one tooth has a chip, or where there’s a mild gap.
I’m talking about where the teeth literally distract me from the storyline and the acting. I know no person in “real life” (whom I speak with in person) who’s teeth look anything like that. So for those people who are saying it brings a touch of realism - I’m sorry, it’s distracting from the realism.
I heard a story one time that (no clue how true it is) Bette Middler chose to not get plastic surgery on her nose because it might affect her singing. I can totally see that! And I can totally see someone who’s teeth are average (not great, and not bad) not wanting to get work done on them.
Michelle Rodriguez got her teeth fixed after her first appearance on Lost (in the airport with Jack before the ill-fated flight) and then miraculously they were perfectly veneered in her next appearance on the island.
Count this as an example of being distracted by too-perfect teeth.
I tried to see what you meant about Patricia Arquette but after 5 pages of google images I didn’t see a single picture with her teeth showing. She must know they are bad.
That’s actually a really good picture of her, and despite the fact that it shows her teeth, it doesn’t make them look bad.
I bet that pictures people tend to click on and stay on are the ones where actresses (and actors) tend to look good, so you aren’t likely to find pictures on the Web of their worst sides.
To really see what I mean, you’d need to sit through a few episodes of Medium and see if you get distracted.
I could show you 150 pictures of me, and not let you see the scar on my nose. I’ll make sure to not show you those pictures. And knowing about the scar, I will position my glasses to hide it, and turn my head so it’s not as visible. I assume if I had disturbing teeth, I would make a point of smiling in a way that didn’t show them off, when a picture is being taken.
During consistent dialogue, where Patricia is the main actress in Medium, she’s not going to get to show her “best side” through the whole show.
