We’ve done a lot of threads about celebrities’ looks but I hope this one is a little different. By distracting I mean anything about them physically that can take you out of what you’re watching. It can be about their attractiveness, if that’s what you want to express, but I hope this doesn’t turn into a hatefest.
Watching Mia Goth in Pearl earlier today is what got me thinking about it. She is a wonderful actress and seems to be getting better with every film. She is / was a model and I think most people find her attractive. I don’t find her unattractive, exactly, but her looks are so distinctive that I find myself thinking about how she looks rather than what she’s saying.
Another example could be people who have famous relatives and that’s all you can see when you look at them, ala Colin Hanks. Or you get caught up in trying to find the resemblance to their famous relative, like I do with Jamie Leigh Curtis. All I can detect is the Curtis.
I watched the series 1883 recently. Good series. But every time (the character) Shea Brennan was on screen, I didn’t see him as Shea Brennan. I saw him as Sam Elliott. Took me right out of the show.
Ato Essandoh, who plays Stuart in “The Diplomat”. Tall, skinny, sort of bug-eyed, eyes are too far apart, weird shaped head… I just find him really distracting.
And speaking of “The Diplomat”, once I figured out that Rory Kinnear (who plays the British PM) was the son of the guy who played Veruca Salt’s dad in “Willy Wonka”, that’s all I see now.
Currently watching The Dropout, about Elizabeth Holmes, in preparation for seeing You Can See Everything.
Amanda Seyfried plays Elizabeth Holmes and, like her, has naturally large (and may I say very attractive) eyes. However, she has had to do something with her lower lip to change it from her usual perfectly formed bow to something more like EH’s particular profile and at least allude to her stronger jawline.
Its kind of effective, and changes Seyfried’s normal face sufficiently to mark her as being someone else for the show. However, it is distracting, and sometimes detracts from the scene.
Michael Shannon’s face looks like it was surgically reconstructed to me. Sometimes this is appropriate for a role (like General Zed) but other times I find it distracting (like George & Tammy). That’s not a criticism, I think he is an outstanding actor (Death by Lightning comes to mind) and musician (REM tributes with Jason Narducy), but his face always makes me do a double take.
Elijah Wood’s eyeballs are off-puttingly huge and starey. During his onscreen closeups in the LOTR films, I have to look away or I get the heebie-jeebies.
I can’t watch Keira Knightley. The lantern jaw is just too distracting. One shudders to imagine the offspring she and Jay Leno might produce.
Christopher Walken is just scary.
On the other hand, Michael Emerson is a strange-looking dude. But that works very much in his favor as the ultimate world-saving nerd in “Person of Interest.”
For me it’s when a relatively unknown actor sort of resembles a more well known actor, and is cast in a role that the well known actor would have likely nailed. I had that experience watching Resident Evil 2026. The protagonist is played by Austin Abrams. I spent the whole movie thinking that they should have cast Jeremy White in the role.
ETA: The resemblance can’t be too close. If it’s a really close resemblance, then it’s no longer distracting. Andy Comeau in 8 Heads In a Duffel Bag has a resemblance so close to John Cusack that my brain can pretend that John Cusack was playing his role. In the case of Austin Abrams and Jeremy White, I couldn’t make that leap.
I think those things would distract me if he was cast in a “normal” role. But those looks fit just fine for a role like the guy that stirred the pot at the bar in Desperado or the guy who slid down the bungee cord ride in Grownups.
