# Hot characters played by not-hot actors
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 22, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437 "2008-04-22T19:12:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/1 "2008-04-22T19:12:06Z")
That’s probably less clear than it could be. I’m thinking of TV/movie characters that are clearly written to be super-hot: the women who are adored by all the male characters, and the men who sleep with every female guest star. Clearly, the screenwriter considers them uberhot.
And yet the actor cast isn’t all that attractive, possibly even somewhat repulsive. Some examples I can think of are William Shatner as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, and Wendie Malick as Nina on Just Shoot Me. I know there’s more; help me out!
Note: I’m not talking about a generally-considered-gorgeous person that YOU simply don’t find attractive. I’m talking about an ordinary-looking person cast into a role that’s written to be hot.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/2 "2008-04-22T19:17:00Z")
[QUOTE=JSexton]
Wendie Malick as Nina on Just Shoot Me. I know there’s more; help me out!
[/QUOTE]
I thought the whole point of her was that she really WASN’T hot anymore(and everyone knew it but her,), but _used_ to be (in the context of the show, that is…her character was a former model.) She mostly slept with other people that really wouldn’t be considered hot and were generally as washed-up as she was.
My contribution: Kristen Dunst.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/3 "2008-04-22T19:17:35Z")
Julia Roberts might play Not-quite-ugly Woman, but Pretty Woman? Disbelief not quite suspended there.
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### Author:  [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/4 "2008-04-22T19:20:39Z")
This happened a lot with the men-of-the-week on Sex and the City.
The SatC gals would be fawning over some guy who was clearly supposed to be really hot in the script, but in reality looked like a troll.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/5 "2008-04-22T19:22:40Z")
[QUOTE=shy guy]
This happened a lot with the men-of-the-week on Sex and the City.
The SatC gals would be fawning over some guy who was clearly supposed to be really hot in the script, but in reality looked like a troll.
[/QUOTE]
Yo. Not just the guys. Samantha was the only non-canine in the cast.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/6 "2008-04-22T19:23:24Z")
[QUOTE=shy guy]
This happened a lot with the men-of-the-week on Sex and the City.
[/QUOTE]
This happened a lot with the women-of-the-series on Sex and the City.
I mean, yeah, Kristen Davis is quite attractive, but Sara-Jessica Parker? Really? They couldn’t have gotten a better looking late 30’s woman? And the red-head just baffles me…sometimes she looks nice, but other times she looks like a hag. And the older woman…well, she’s in her fifties, so I’ll admit she is still looking good for her age, but why was she always with the rest of them anyway? They are all 15-20 years younger than her.
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### Author:  [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/7 "2008-04-22T19:29:44Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
Yo. Not just the guys. Samantha was the only non-canine in the cast.
[/QUOTE]
I actually think that Kristen Davis is pretty attractive, and Kim Katrall could be at times (they usually styled her like a well-to-do tramp, though).
That said, they weren’t really _supposed_ to be exceptionally hot, were they?
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/8 "2008-04-22T19:29:57Z")
Drew Barrymore as the Cinderella character in Ever After. I do believe she played the role well, but I have a hard time picturing her as the great beauty that Cinderella is supposed to be.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/9 "2008-04-22T19:34:58Z")
Hugh Laurie is not hot. Dr. House is hotter than is humanly possible.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/10 "2008-04-22T19:35:17Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
Julia Roberts might play Not-quite-ugly Woman, but Pretty Woman? Disbelief not quite suspended there.
[/QUOTE]
I think Julia Roberts is like one of Jerry’s girlfriends on Seinfeld. The one that changed depending on the lighting.
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### Author:  [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/11 "2008-04-22T19:37:37Z")
First off, I’ll admit that I never saw [The Hottie and the Nottie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804492/), but I did see enough of it on talk shows to understand that the titular hottie, played by Paris Hilton, was supposedly so incredibly attractive that she couldn’t go out on the beach without men falling all over themselves.
Now, Paris can look attractive when she’s made up and lit just right and photographed from the proper angle, but on a Southern California beach on a summer afternoon, men would be more likely to push someone like her out of the way so they could get a look at the really hot women. Heck, she doesn’t even look that good on the poster (she’s the blonde, in case you were wondering).
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### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/12 "2008-04-22T19:47:23Z")
I disagree with a lot of these. I don’t find Julia Roberts attractive, but I can understand why one would. Kim Catrall and Sarah Jessica Parker are both smokin. Cynthia Nixon has something about her, but she was never supposed to be the hot one, she married the sort of joe average dude ultimately.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/13 "2008-04-22T19:47:42Z")
[QUOTE=JSexton]
William Shatner as Captain Kirk in Star Trek
[/QUOTE]
Not by the time of the films, but back in the series days Shatner was a very pretty man.
To offer a somewhat facetious example, Vincent from “Beauty and the Beast” as played by Ron Perlman.
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/14 "2008-04-22T19:51:30Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
Yo. Not just the guys. Samantha was the only non-canine in the cast.
[/QUOTE]
Canine? I was thinking more of another, larger animal. The kind that can either make or lose you thousands of dollars. The kind that won the West. The kind on the front of a Ferrari.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/15 "2008-04-22T20:00:39Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
Canine? I was thinking more of another, larger animal. The kind that can either make or lose you thousands of dollars. The kind that won the West. The kind on the front of a Ferrari.
[/QUOTE]
I believe you’re referring to the species that when once their utility has expired they wind up holding your furniture together. Or as food for that other group I mentioned.
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### Author:  [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/16 "2008-04-22T20:01:59Z")
I don’t think Katherine Keener was all that hot in _Being John Malkovich_, but she acted like she knew she was, and John Cusak way hot for her. 😕
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/17 "2008-04-22T20:02:11Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01]
Drew Barrymore as the Cinderella character in Ever After. I do believe she played the role well, but I have a hard time picturing her as the great beauty that Cinderella is supposed to be.
[/QUOTE]
But, in **that** version of the story, her beauty was not what interested Prince Charming anyway.
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/18 "2008-04-22T20:06:27Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
But, in **that** version of the story, her beauty was not what interested Prince Charming anyway.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t disagree with you. I do agree that she did an excellent job in that version, but I can’t completely separate that story from it’s Cinderella roots. Hence my expectation of a great beauty.
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### Author:  [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/19 "2008-04-22T20:16:32Z")
I think the actor who played Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) in the _The Wire_ was perfectly cast. He was also not, at first glance (or sencond) all that hot or goodlooking, but the fact that he could pretty much get laid anytime he wanted to with any girl he wanted (constantly "nut-deep in random pussy) said something.
I slowly came around to looking closer and came to think that, despite his ordinary, no, make that funny looks, he was majorly hot. Either it was just me or the casting director was smart enough to know this actor had that quality that would shine through as you spent more time with him. Allow inner hot boiling to the surface to outshine outer geek in the end.
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### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-characters-played-by-not-hot-actors/446437/20 "2008-04-22T20:26:31Z")
Jeff Goldblum in _Earth Girls Are Easy_. Maybe I’m just missing something, as I’m a hetersexual guy, but _Jeff-freakin’-Goldblum_? Am I really that far off from understanding what an average woman finds attractive?
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