[snail]

Hollywood Homely - Television Tropes & Idioms

Hollywood Homely

Five minutes into the film, I relaxed, knowing it was set in the real world, and not in the Hollywood alternative universe where Julia Roberts can't get a date.
—Roger Ebert, on My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Producer: What were you thinking?
Casting: Well, you said you wanted gritty. In other words, ugly.
Producer: I wanted Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island ugly, not Cornelius on Planet of the Apes ugly. TV-ugly, not ... ugly-ugly.
— The Simpsons, "Pygmoelian"

Dramatic situations sometimes require a character (usually female) who is unappealing, unattractive, and has a hard time finding dates. However, unattractive or even average-looking women are often dissuaded from even trying to get acting jobs in Hollywood, so the person cast in the role ends up being more gorgeous than anybody you'll ever meet in real life. Likewise, producers know that "beauty is money," and so they're disinclined to cast genuinely unattractive people even as villains or extras, but would rather simply infer homeliness to the character via character-reactions — regardless of the irony presented in attributing such to the fairly good-looking person playing the role.
She'll also be much thinner, since women of average build are considered to be lumbering oxen by most Hollywood producers even if they're as fit as an Olympian. They make her "plain" by giving her some or all of: thick glasses, braces, unfashionable clothes, an unflattering hairstyle, and an even-better-looking sibling or friend. A more subtle method involves giving the actress clothes that clash with her natural skin color, making her look pale or blotchy — a method also often used in "before-and-after" shots for diet-pill commercials.
Generic Cuteness is the animated equivalent of this trope, and the result is a very Informed Deformity. Cue the logical outcome, Cookie Cutter Cuties which describe what you have to look like in order to be "physically acceptable".
Compare Beautiful All Along, Loser Guy, Cool Loser, Hollywood Nerd, Hollywood Pudgy. Contrast Informed Attractiveness and Gorgeous Gorgon. Adaptational Attractiveness is when this trope is applied to characters who were plain, unattractive, old, etc. in the source material a show is based on. Beauty Inversion is the use of makeup or prosthetics to successfully avert this trope.

Beautiful All Along

Like magic! Or maybe not!
"Like in one of those movies. You know. When they take off their glasses and put down their hair. 'Why, Miss Finch, you're beautiful.'"
—Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things

A stock plot: an ugly duckling loses the glasses, takes down her hair, maybe gets a little makeup and walks down the stairs as a swan. Pretty much the plot of the movie She's All That.
Another version of this would be "Miss Jones Syndrome", where a dowdy, bespectacled woman switches to contacts, shakes loose her hair and is told by the unrequited object of her affections, "Why, Miss Jones, you are beautiful." (A variant on this can be heard in Thomas Dolby's song "She Blinded Me With Science": "Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto, you're beautiful!")
This is mainly possible because most of the "ugly" women on TV are beautiful actresses in bad clothes, though it also has something to do with narrow standards of beauty in movies and TV.
Starts as a nice little moral about how looks aren't everything, but saves the hero from actually having to go out with an ugly girl.

P.U.G. Knows | Movies | EW.com
















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[connieculkins]

To me the pretty versions of the actresses don't look that much prettier. They just looked like they blow dried their hair. I've noticed this IRL too, that putting a little time into my hair style and make-up make a huge difference in how attractive people think I am. More and more, beauty has nothing to do with your natural features, but is a choice. If you choose to diet, put on make-up, do your hair in a socially acceptable feminine style du jour then you will be beautiful. Some of the most glamorous women you know might not be as 'naturally' pretty as the plain jane who doesn't take a huge interest in her appearance.

[magnus una]

sometimes the women look better to when they weren't glammed up because they looked more interesting and less generic

[ForsakenMe]

These days I've given up makeup... I still put on mascara and make sure my eyebrows look nice, likewise I do dot a bit of concealer on my face or around my eyes if I look sorta bad that day, but otherwise, I try to keep it as simple and understated as possible. I don't style my hair in any big, showy way, in fact I let it down and curly. I scrunch it with a bit of gel mixed with conditioner and my hair is naturally soft yet very shiny and defined.

You should bring your natural beauty out, not become someone else.

[Somniorum]

maybe a little side-rant, but it always pissed me off, what they did in the Breakfast Club with that lass. not simply because it was such a tired thing to do, as you pointed out snail, but because i honestly thought the lass was *way* more attractive how she looked before that make-over. i HATE how they made her look, i really really do.

(not to mention the just general bullshit message, i mean, everyone else comes to be accepted just by opening up and talking, but SHE needs a cheesy makeover too for some reason? ugh)

[Teigue]

All of those women look better with out makeup to me!

[Paradigm]

Let's not forget the Princess Diaries...



Yeah, not a fan of the "beautifying." To me, people are prettier without make-up or fancy dress or any of the Hollywood crap. I never understood why people like George Clooney or, uh... Angelia Jolie are hailed as being the "hottest people evar." In fact, the most casually-dressed person (who isn't showing off 90% of their skin/underwear ) gets my attention far more than someone decked out in the traditional sexy-wear.

[Lad]

Generally, just need reasonably styled hair. I've met a lot of natural beauties without the make up, I prefer it that way. However, frizzy or poorly managed hair is a bit of a turn off.

In all the pics you mentioned, I preferred the makeover look, but only for the hair fix.

[OrangeAppled]

I thought this was going to be about a similar occurrence, when a pretty, thin actress gains weight for a part and/or wears some heavy makeup & dental gear to alter her facial features, maybe dons an ugly wig, & voila - now she's "ugly", or at least ugly enough to play a lead role where the character is meant to be unattractive or "average". Why not hire real ugly or average looking people? The reason is they want "stars" in the lead roles, and these people are either attractive to begin with or have made themselves more attractive through various means due to fame/fortune.

Even with the ugly duckling roles listed above (where they later are revealed to be "swans" who just needed some polishing), the actress's beauty is downplayed for the role, until its time for the "makeover". In reality, they just strip the actress of goofy distractions to her real beauty (ie. glasses - the oldest & lamest trick , bad wigs, baggy clothes etc).

I'm not anti-beauty at all, but I do believe it's unfair to those with talent who may suit the role physically "naturally". You see a lot more legitimately "ugly" men in Hollywood also, so maybe, being a woman, that is why it irks me. The ugly man + beautiful woman pairing is a lot more common in movies than the opposite also...

[snail]

This isn't so much about whether you think girls are prettier with or without a makeover. What I am getting at is that instead of using actual ugly girls, and sending the message that ugly girls are okay as they are without deserving to be picked on, they make it look like being popular is just a matter of choice, that ugly girls deserve how they are treated because they could easily just "pretty themselves up" and be treated like human beings, win the love of everyone who is shallow enough to care, and be okay. It is offensive.

Another thing using makeup (or a lack of it) to make pretty girls symbolically ugly reminds me of is how, in Shakespearian days, women were played by men, because for some reason it was seen as improper to use real women. Today it is seen as improper in most cases to show real ugly girls, or to acknowledge that they have any value until they have been "reformed" into pretty girls. After all, we all supposedly have an inner pretty girl who can be revealed with a little effort, perhaps something as simple as makeover, so being mistreated for being ugly isn't a serious problem. After all, ugly is supposedly a choice. *rolls eyes*

I suppose the same applies to guys, in a less noticeable way. Consider the fairy tale about a hideous beast who is loved by a beautiful girl. In the end, her reward for accepting him is that he transforms into a handsome prince. After all, who wants to be with someone ugly? Right? Well, I think it's time for a new message. I know Shrek was a step in the right direction, but it is still all too common to see pretty girls playing the parts of ugly girls.

Instead of dressing one thing up to represent another existing thing, why not just use the real thing and deal with the real issues that surround it?