Megan Fox is the closest modern movies get to a perfect woman – you could stare at her for days and not find a flaw.
Physically, at least.
But not every actress shares her stunning looks. And some might seem a bit awkward or even unappealing at times but still manage to make pulses quicken on screen.
Beauty is subjective, natch, but here are WWTW’s choices for actresses who don’t fit the standard beauty template but are lovely to look at all the same.
- Meryl Streep: For years the “Sophie’s Choice” star dazzled audiences with her acting chops, all the while holding her own against more conventionally attractive women. Today, at 60, she’s still radiant in films like “It’s Complicated,” setting aside obvious plastic surgery tweaks to remain a most complicated beauty. Who can blame Alec Baldwin for chasing her?
- Mary Stuart Masterson: This actress hasn’t been busy of late, but her iconic role in “Some Kind of Wonderful” still stands out to me. Why would our hero (Eric Stoltz) bother to chase the plastic beauty of Amanda Jones (Lea Thompson) when his tomboy pal (Masterson) was always by his side?
- Minnie Driver: Her breakthrough role came playing a plain Jane heroine in “Circle of Friends,” but she won my heart with her joyful laugh in “Good Will Hunting.”
- Tilda Swinton: Maybe WWTW likes the bad girls of cinema, but I thought her performance in “The Chronicles of Narnia” as the White Witch was rather beguiling – despite her razor sharp features and ghastly pale skin.
- Readers’ choice: Your choice for an unconventionally attractive actress working in Hollywood today?
(Photo: Alec Baldwin woos Meryl Streep in “It’s Complicated”/Universal Pictures)
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Amanda Peet. she’s lovely and she’s funny.
Megan Fox is the closest modern movies gets to a perfect woman – you could stare at her for days and not find a flaw.
You think numerous gross and stupid tatoos don’t constitute a flaw?
Or are you just considering her the “fixed” version which shows up on the screen?
Christina Hendricks of Mad Men. Crooked nose and is probably considered overweight, but… Wow!
Not a tattoo lover myself, K, so I’m going with what I see on the screen (where movie magic erases them!)
Good question and great examples. Love Minnie Driver. How about Illeana Douglas? I think she’s s fine actress with a unique look.
On the other hand, I get tired of being told by Hollywood how beautiful Maggie Gyllenhaal is. She too is a fine actress. But, when Heath Ledger utters the line, “hello beautiful” in the ‘Dark Night’ – - well, they should have handed him the Oscar on the spot.
Great line, Grofe!
Although after seeing Maggie G. in “Secretary” I could buy that line from Mr. Joker.
Myrna Loy, Norma Shearer, Patricia Clarkson, Kirsten Dunst (she’s got a crooked face, but can be very appealing — Spiderman, Marie Antoinette, etc.) and Sigourney Weaver can be too (Heartbreakers was great for her and she was that way in Ghostbusters also)
Would Joan Allen fit in this category? Forgot about her. Yeah, Clarkson counts … although Weaver might be conventionally beautiful (and thus disqualified!)
Hendricks – may her days on television be infinite.
Summer Glau. She’s not a conventional beauty and that’s what makes her so beautiful. Even as a killer terminator you wanted to protect her from the bad things in the world.
Or maybe that’s just me.
Maggie Gyllenhaal (sp?) would be my nominee as well.
And, nitpicky as it might be, I’m here to tell you that Megan Fox does have at least one (actually, TEN) natural, physical flaws: She’s got some REALLY effed up finger nails. Seriously. Find a picture where you can see her hands. She’s hot as hell but a hand model, she ain’t.
Tilda is just plain scary looking. Claire Danes didn’t knock me over the first time I saw her (Rainmaker), but she grows on you.
Kate Winslet.
I love her because she’s not obsessed with being ultra-skinny and she’ll go naked in a movie and not starve herself before the shoot. I really like Kate. And she’s an unconventional beauty because she’s a real woman.
Here’s one I don’t quite understand. Jennifer Aniston, despite crazy fame, isn’t conventionally pretty, but she’s sort of a sexy Hollywood symbol. Sometimes it’s just all about how Hollywood decides to sell an actor or actress. Zooey Deschanel is another gal Hollywood has decided to mark as a cutie-pie, but I’m not sure she’d be “all-that” in real life. Kind of a dork. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
It would be interesting to do this same post for men. Speaking of Maggie G., I don’t find her brother attractive at all, yet he’s quite the Hollywood darling these days. I guess good looks really is in the eye of the beholder.
Jennifer Carpenter. She has sort of an odd-looking face, which would normally disqualify her from getting work in Hollywood, but she is incredibly sexy and beautiful, especially on Dexter.
How did we manage to have a 14-comment thread on this subject without anybody mentioning Lili Taylor?
Heh.
The irony, if not outright paradox, of this thread is that there are no ugly actresses in Hollywood; plenty of ugly actors – even in leading roles – but even the contradictory flattery of ‘unconventional beauties’ has average-looking at worse. [Hello, "Dogfight"]’s Ms. Taylor.]
I would argue that any of the names who are not currently some degree of blonde-haired, petite, and cast opposite an actor a decade or more older and less attractive would qualify as “unconventional.”
~ D.