FWIW, I felt the same way as the OP about Shallow Hal. If they meant it, they would have cast some at least normal woman as the female lead, not someome who meets the Hollywood standard of “pretty = anorexia”.
There is an early scene after the lead has had his magical insight, where he is in a cab with two women. Before, seen thru his eyes, they are Hollywood standard. After, from the “real” point of view, they are both (IMO) equally or more attractive.
I have problems with the whole idea that you must be thirty pounds underweight to be beautiful. Or that implants are attractive, non-existent noses are de rigueur, or anyone over twenty five is out of the running.
I can think of one example of an ugly girl who finds true love – and with a hunky guy, River Phoenix. And she stays ugly throughout the movie. Funny thing is, I think Lili Taylor is hawt. And they cast Sue Morales (Northern Exposure) in the wrong role. If this movie had balls, they’s have cast her as Rose.
So what is everyone’s opinion of Lili Taylor? She’s been cast as the “ugly girl” more than a few times (Dogfight and I Shot Andy Warhol, for example), but not always – I don’t think there was any hint that Nate was slumming by marrying her in Six Feet Under. She won’t remind anyone of a Barbie doll, but I think she’s prettier than the average Jane. Although she does play the neurotic wallflower really convincingly.
No, they couldn’t have. The point of the story was that Hal saw ugly women as Hollywood-beautiful. They needed someone Hollywood-beautiful to portray what he was seeing through his hypnosis.
Anne Hathaway wasn’t cast as “ugly” in Devil Wears Prada. She was cast as “not fashion conscious”, and slightly overweight by fashion-magazine standards. She had to be attractive to make the point that looks weren’t enough in the Runway world–you had to be anorexic and tricked out in the latest duds besides.
Seriously, in this link, she’s got a beautiful, fresh faced look (and she IS wearing makeup, just a different style and quantity of makeup) that I find just breathtaking. I don’t really know her work, although I see her on awards shows and such. I find that, much like with Paris Hilton, the “before/ugly” picture is far prettier than the “after/beautified” picture. It’s not that I don’t like makeup, it’s that I like subtle makeup that enhances, not thick and obvious makeup. I want to look at the person, not the bronzer.
Although I did wonder at first if it was an odd angle of Maggie Gyllenhaal (another beauty in my book - when she’s not all tarted up.)
Good points in the OP, but good luck finding any actress who will be considered “ugly” by consensus.
As I’ve learned from perusing certain message boards, there is apparently nobody so hideous that at least one or two people won’t chime in about how “cute” he or she looks.
after recently seeing Factotum, and considering her other roles (*High Fidelity * and *Say Anything * come to mind – how’s that for spanning her career), I’ll say that Lilli Taylor has an attractive face, bad hair and an awful body – awkardly built, thick torso, saggy breasts, ridiculously skinny legs
re Shallow Hal, it really wasn’t realistic to pick a larger girl for the female lead, as she had to be thin in the early segments. The other girls and guys who Hal saw both while he was hyptnotized and not hyponotized were played by different actors, which you can overlook with periphereal players, but which, for continuity’s sake, would be nearly impossible to overlook with the lead. IMHO, YMMV.
That’s why I likes “10 things I hate about you” (hey look, I saw it on cable!). There was not intimation that she was not attractive. Just Just that she was a bitch (ie not willing to conform to what guys think we should be and pretty prickly about it.)
That said, there was a girl who went to school with me who dressed…well, a lot like me. Combat boots. Kakies. Baggy clothes Big black coat. Curly hair falling all over her face.
I had to take a second look to notice she had the most perfect features. Limpid blue eyes. Porcinline skin. Curly hair was beautiful.
She was a total babe. Nobody seemed to notice. She was a couple years behind me…I hope by senoir year, or at least by college someone will notice this jewel …someone who like combat boots. (I’d have done so if it wern’t for this pesky hetorsexuality)
Thank you! Renee Zellwegger is not an attractive person, but people continually talk about her like she is. In my household, she’s known as “Ax Face” Zelwegger.
Ugly girl refuses makeover because she wants people to like her for who she is and doesn’t feel the need to conform for others. She meets the boy of her dreams who loves her for her intelligence, personality, enthusiasm for life, and the ability to stand up for her principles.
I will give kudos to Robert Altman who used two of the… not better looking… women to receive consistent work in Hollywood in casting Nashville: Shelley Duvall and Lily Tomlin.
I blame The Munsters. Everybody kept talking about how ugly the daughter was, and everybody bought the idea hook, line and sinker–let’s talk about a gorgeous girl as if she were ugly! Funny!
Or, ugly girl refuses makeover because she wants people to like her for who she is. It turns out that no one likes her because she really is just a pain in the ass with low intelligence and no personality. Who says ugly girls are all smart with great sparkling personalities?
Didn’t really mean to single yours out, just that it was the last post with one of those alternate story line ideas. But that is what all those movies are like, the ugly girl really is smart, has a great personality, probably some really major talent that no one noticed except maybe her art teacher…etc etc. And of course the rich, pretty girls are self absorbed and needlessly cruel to everyone around them.
I mentioned in another thread, that with all the shows on that have average-at-best looking men in relationships with stunningly beautiful women, it’s interesting to see the stereotype reversed in Grey’s Anatomy, where a cast of mostly normal looking women are surrounded by men who all look like male models.
