OMG, how could I forget Leonardo DiCaprio? Dude just gets better with age. From gawky preteen in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/what’s-eating-gilbert-grape?before=1337975766
to cute but super boyish babyfaced teen (here is is trying to look all bad-boy but really just look like he got into his grandma’s smokes) http://s.wigsbuy.com/images/product/9/9673/9673249_1.jpg
to sexy distinguished mature man http://iamritaliciouz.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/leonardo-dicaprio-gq-1011-2.jpg?w=593
Hubba Hubba
Everyone has missed the ultimate example of what the OP wanted. Alyssa Milano.
She may be only 14 but Bindi Irwin is growing up.
wow, she looks way different
?? Throughout “Who’s the Boss?”, she was very much considered a “cutie pie” (I remember a reviewer using those exact words, in a Time Magazine article or something.)
Maybe you associated her character’s New York City working-class accent with “awkwardness”? Or, ???
ETA: Having seen your link, I think you’re associating “awkward” with 80s fashions. Point taken.
This thread is mostly gorgeous children who grew up to be gorgeous adults. If alyssa milano was an awkward kid then every other kid in the world must be hideous.
Well on the other hand, there was that child actor who appeared in the original Star Trek, and who grew up to be . . . oh. Never mind.
[aside]Holy cow the Troughton genes are strong in that fellow Melling![/aside]
Well, yes - they’re actors. The vast, vast majority of them are at worst movie-ugly nut ugly-ugly ;). That’s why I mentioned with Eliza Dushku that she was “made up” to be awkward and nerdy, by either contrasting her with a glammed up young blond cutie like Heigl or put in cats-eye glasses. Objectively speaking, she was a perfectly fine-looking kid. Most of them are.
And I also remember the teen Milano being considered a hot item among the younger set back in the day ( she’s only a few years younger than me ).
I disagree - child actors, especially boys, are often a bit odd-looking. Sometimes they grow up good looking nonetheless That’s who I thought this thread was about, and there are some good examples.
That is what I intended, but you can never really control how these threads go!
I think the “especially boys” part has some bearing on this. Relatively speaking it has always been a little bit easier to make it as a non-handsome male actor. Males are allowed to be a bit rougher around the edges and succeed, at least as character actors. And I’m sure that bleeds over to child actors, maybe even more so with hunt for the “boy stereotypes” movies ( “the fat kid”, “the geek”, etc. ).
By contrast you have to search harder for successful highly idiosyncratic ( physically ) actresses. They certainly exist, but there are fewer of them. And I think this might even more emphasized for child actresses where “cute” is probably even more of a selling point than usual.
I think Bindi Irwin is an acceptable answer. I think Alyssa Milano is not.
On thing with Kristen Stewart may be her chin. She’s got a bit of a jutting chin that gives an angular look to her face. It emphasizes the jawline. I can see someone thinking she might have needed to grow into that. I don’t get how someone thinks she looks masculine now.
Agreed. Leo looks better and better over time.
This post has been graped by the grapist. Emphasis mine.
Alyson Hannigan sure plays a different sort of character as an adult than she did as a child.
She does? Naturally, as a kid she’d play kid roles, but I don’t think I follow.
Was that referenced somewhere in the movie? Count me in as one of the people who thought Jodie Foster’s kid was a boy until she indicated otherwise. So, I would definitely say that Stewart Kristen grew up (in the same way Tatum O’Neal or Jodie Foster herself did).
Okay, I’m remembering this from watching the movie at the time. I don’t have a cite, just my recollection of how it went down.
She started playing geeky roles, from teen girl in “My Stepmother is an Alien” to her role in “American Pie” as the band girl, to Willow on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.
Now she plays hot sexy women roles. At least, that’s what I assume he means.