I cannot believe how much Mary Steenburgen has changed in looks. Last week she appeared on 30 Rock as Jack’s mother-in-law, and I had no idea who it was. The voice sounded familiar and the awkward, wooden acting certainly was. But who? Who IS that woman, I kept wondering throughout the most of the program. When finally I recognized the voice as hers, I still couldn’t truly believe it but lo and behold, the credits confirmed it.
Have I just not been paying attention? Or has she had some serious plastic surgery? She looked utterly gorgeous … not the “maybe if she didn’t act like such a dork she might actually be pretty” woman I remembered.
Does the above photo look like Mary Steenburgen to you?
Looking at older photos of her, she does seem a lot prettier than I remember her being in her younger days. I remember her in Time After Time with Malcolm McDowell and thought she was downright homely. Nor did she impress me in Back to the Future III. I could be swayed by her acting, however, which I cannot fathom. It seems like she photographs better than she shows up on film or tape. To me, anyway.
Some people look better in two dimensions than in three–I can’t explain how or why. My mom around age 18, for instance, is one of the most photogenic young adults I’ve ever seen on film. Not that she was ugly in person or anything, but she was *much *better looking in pictures than in real life. My aunt tells me everyone thought she looked like a young Farrah Fawcett, but only in pictures. hehe
I, on the other hand, look pretty crappy in most of my pictures, and better in 3-D. It must be some kind of darkroom sorcery.
People change over time, I don’t dispute that … and looking at older photos, now, she doesn’t really look that different. But I literally did not know who she was for the duration of a sitcom and she’s someone I felt I absolutely knew what she looked like without question. Odd.
I don’t know; I was watching 30 Rock and when she walked in I said to my wife “Hey, Mary Steenburgen!” I’ve always liked her and thought she was beautiful in a very natural way. She was in Joan of Arcadia a few years ago and looked about the same, and I don’t think she’s changed too much since Back to the Future III. It’s possible she’s had some work done but if so, it’s pretty subtle. I think she’s just aging very gracefully.
She wasn’t homely in ‘Time After Time’ (BTW, a great movie) but she certainly looks better now.
Some people grow into their skins, so to speak.
I have been told multiple times that I look more attractive than I was twenty years ago.
Of course, they could just being nice.
A tad off-topic, but I thought for sure that episode was going to end with her and Jack going to bed and Avery walking into the room saying “Honey, I’m home from North Korea!”
I noticed she looked really good when she guest starred as the crazy mom of Elijah Wood’s character on an episode of Wilfred last year. (Her husband’s long time co-star Rhea Perlman was also in that episode- she looks significantly older than she did on Cheers [hardly surprising since it was 20 years ago] but very naturally aged as opposed to Freaky-Hollywood-Aged.)
Rumor is that Mary Steenburgen has had her cheeks and other areas filled out a bit with flesh taken at night from a sleeping Macaulay Culkin.
