This morning as I was getting ready for work, I saw a snippet of a 2002 Angelina Jolie movie, Life or Something Like it. I’m not a Jolie fan anyway, but I was struck by how truly, truly awful she looks as a platinum blonde in the brief scene I saw. (Here’s he trailer from YouTube.)The look was beyond ridiculous. It was beyond hideous. Were I to learn that everyone on the set of the film was warned not to look her directly in the eyes for more than twenty seconds lest they accidentally be turned into stone. It was clear that someone in the costume or makeup department really, really hated her.
Which got me to thinking: what other films & tv shows can you think of in which an usually attractive actor looks, for mysterious reasons, hideous? I’m not really looking for cases of purposeful de-glamorizing the appearance; rather, I was hoping for instances of risible costume, hair, or makeup choices.
Television Without Pity calls this the “Evil Fashion Nazi”. I hardly ever notice it… unless I’m watching tv with women around (I kid! I kid!).
However, even I, lumpish male that I am, noticed how horrible the women in “Sex In the City” look in that crap they’re dressed in. Sarah Jessica Parker is kinda homely but has a great body… but in that show, all you notice is that she’s been parasitized by ginormous fabric flowers. They even manage to make the cute one and Kim Cattrall look fairly average. That wardrobe is messed up.
And since there is no other reason to watch that show than for eye candy*, that’s kind of a problem.
But… judging by that trailer her character was doing the bleach blond thing as a look because “it’s my trademark” even though it doesn’t work. They even make fun of her hair in the trailer.
But anyway, it’s not the wardrobe people’s fault, but the woman from Cold Case has terrible hair. Aside form that, my mother is afraid to watch the “dead girl show” because of her. No, the “dead girl” does not refer to the victims in any of the cold cases, but rather it refers to the lead actress. The woman’s face is so frozen from botox that my mom thinks she looks as expressionless as a death mask. Her make-up and the lighting also make her look quite pale, and it freaks Mom out to see a corpse talking.
I didn’t watch the trailer. My contempt of Angelina Jolie (which, like my seething hatred of Disney, is inexplicable and uncreated) prevented me. Anyway, this thread is about being cruel, judgmental, unfair, and when appropriate catty, as might be inferred by the identity of the OP.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen that movie, but I think Angelina was supposed to look kind of over-the-top in that movie. I think it was to show that her character starts out as an ambitious, calloused reporter with an artificial persona. But as the movie progresses, she grows as a person and her look softens a bit. I agree she looks awful with that blonde hair, but I think it was a conscious choice and a storytelling technique.
The makeup people on Grey’s Anatomy clearly hate Ellen Pompeo. She’s always splotchy and her eyes are always red and she always looks like she’s having an allergy attack.
I usually find Janeane Garofalo pretty cute – even in movies where she’s supposed to be the “ugly girl” – and I think the director of Mystery Men went out of his/her way to make her look bad.
Seriously, Catwoman is sexy, Halle Berry is sexy, and torn skintight leather is sexy. It takes some serious artistic ability to take three such sexy elements and combine them into something so bad. That had to have been intentional; nobody makes mistakes that extreme.
Everything about Jennifer Love Hewitt’s look in the Ghost Whisperer is wrong, wrong, wrong. I know she’s *supposed *to be eclectic and I usually gravitate toward vintage clothing but JLH simply cannot pull it off. Thank goodness they eliminated the ridiculous hair extensions and false eyelashes. Granted, it’s not a great show anyway, but her wardrobe, hair and makeup were so irritating as to be distracting.
I do love Chief Johnson, but she usually looks pretty awful. Though I wonder whether it’s an intentional choice. Part of her character is that she’s NOT this cool, collected pulled-together lady.
And they often do play on the way that her physical appearance and some aspects of her manner are in sharp contrast to her role and her abilities. I mean, how often does she show up at someone’s door in her little pink coat, and they assume she’s the Avon lady or something? And then she springs the “Ah’m Deppity Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson of the Ell-Lay-Pee-Dee. Would jeew please stip ahtside fur a moment? Than kew.”
Then again, if she was the Avon lady, wouldn’t you think they’d put her lipstick on straight?
I think they lightened up a bit on her obnoxious lipstick, but it still annoys the shit outta me. It’s just the worst attempt at…whatever the fuck they’re trying to do. Her hot and self-aware hubby wouldn’t give her a second look in real life.
Oh, and lose the stupid closet chocolate addiction while you’re at it.
Angelina’s hair in Life or Something Like It was supposed to make her look kind of oblivious to the real world; later in the movie, she’s been through the wringer and her hair, though messy, looks a lot more appealing.
Chief Johnson, with her purple lipstick and Sunday Go to Meetin’ sweaters, is supposed to look like someone who doesn’t belong in LA. It’s a pretty explicit part of her characterization and some plot lines have hinged on it. I like how she’ll pull her shirt off in an elevator with Flynn and Provenza in there with her. It’s important to her characterization. I need to know she’s the kind of gal who might, say, pull her clothes off in an elevator like a Gil Elvgren model.
Was there not an episode in which her lone female subordinate–whose name I cannot remember for the life of me and am too lazy to look up–told her, reluctantly, that her lipstick was awful, and that she had been torn between the requirements of friendship (tell your girlfriend when she looks like a clown) and office politics (don’t criticize the boss, lest she consign you to nothing but searching dumpsters for evidence)?
I was irritated by Meg Ryan’s wardrobe in You’ve Got Mail. She was supposed to be a lifelong New Yorker yet she dressed like she just fell off the turnip truck. I think she actually wore a Laura Ashley dress (or some hideous knockoff) in one scene. I’m not saying she needed to be super sophisticated, but the look really didn’t work for what her character was supposed to be.
A very good example would be Ian McKellen in ‘Scandal’ (from 1989). The ‘mohican’ haircut just made him look ridiculous. The photo I’ve linked to only gives a taste of how bad it looked in the actual movie.
The reverse case would be Gwyneth Paltrow. In the movies, she usually looks great. When she dresses herself, for award shows and such, she looks like someone left her out in the rain.
I have to agree with your mom here, no one is that freaking pale and still living. The ads creep me out so much I’ve never been able to catch an episode (and I generally like cop procedurals).
