Hollywood is synonymous with inconceivable magnificence requirements. Even probably the most beautiful actor you may consider has most likely been instructed that there is one thing about their look that must be “fastened.” Whereas some performers resolve to go underneath the knife in hopes of bettering their profession prospects, loads of others have flat-out refused.
Listed here are 19 actors who rejected recommendation to surgically change themselves for the business:
1.
In 1995, Sandra Oh met with an LA agent who suggested her to consider beauty surgical procedure as a result of she wasn’t “fairly sufficient” to be a lead actor. In 2018, Sandra instructed Vulture, “It was the way in which that she mentioned, ‘Hear: I am not going to deceive you. Lots of people are going to deceive you. However I’ve bought nothing for you right here. I’ve Suzy Kim’ — I am simply making up names — ‘she has an audition in like six months. There’s nothing for a yr. My greatest recommendation for you is to return residence and get well-known.'”
“There’s lots of people in our group who can relate to this sense. I had already finished all I might do to get to that A degree, which is star in theater, TV, movie, and in some way, that wasn’t sufficient for somebody to say, ‘I consider I can get you an audition.’ There’s like a darkish needle or a nail that lives behind all of our heads, and that is your worry. That is like, ‘It’s true. There’s nothing there. And she or he’s saying that she’s not going to deceive me. Different persons are going to deceive you, however she will not deceive you. She instructed the reality. Return.’ I used a pay cellphone to name [director Sturla Gunnarsson] and was not in a position to cease crying. It simply reduce me on the knees.”
2.
Talking on the Hollywood Reporter’s Drama Actress Roundtable in 2025, Dame Helen Mirren mentioned, “I used to be instructed to have a nostril job in my 20s… Somebody mentioned, ‘You may by no means get work if you do not have a nostril job.’ I mentioned no. I did not need to be a reasonably actress anyway. I elected to be not so fairly.”
3.
In her 2021 memoir Unfinished, Priyanka Chopra Jonas recalled her first assembly with a director after profitable Miss World 2000. She wrote, “After a couple of minutes of small speak, the director/producer instructed me to face up and twirl for him. I did. He stared at me lengthy and arduous, assessing me, after which urged that I get a boob job, repair my jaw, and add a bit extra cushioning to my butt. If I wished to be an actress, he mentioned, I might have to have my proportions ‘fastened,’ and he knew a fantastic physician in LA he might ship me to. My then-manager voiced his settlement with the evaluation.”
She mentioned the encounter left her feeling “shocked and small.” Not lengthy after, she reduce ties with that supervisor.
4.
In a 2010 weblog publish, Hook actor Dante Basco wrote, “In the future I bear in mind I had this dialog with my then supervisor about the potential for me getting a nostril job! Yeah… a friggin nostril job! I do not know, possibly I did not get a specific job, most likely as a consequence of how I appeared. See, rising up in Hollywood, there weren’t many Filipino actors, and there was completely no Filipino roles, so my jobs consisted of me enjoying something and every part from any type of Latino to any type of Asian and even some Black or white roles for characters that they could not discover ok Black or white children. So this query of a nostril job arises… I should have solely been 14 and was severely requested to provide it some sturdy thought…”
He continued, “A nostril job… Initially, it was the ’80s, and nostril jobs have been in. After all, the supervisor [cited] individuals like Michael Jackson who bought a nostril job and the way it helped his profession (no less than that is what she mentioned). Even my then-acting instructor instructed me Elvis Presley had a nostril job early in his profession (nonetheless unsure if that is true). She even [offered] to arrange the appointment to the physician that did a buddy of her’s nostril. As a youngster, this can be a bizarre factor to consider… Hell, pondering again on it now, it is a bit bizarre. The factor about it’s, there have been a number of individuals placing strain on me about getting this process finished, and never simply enterprise. I do know that there are particular individuals in my household, one aunt for sure, that will’ve jumped at an opportunity to get their nostril ‘fastened.’ And it is a fairly large factor to go and alter the factor smack dab in the midst of your face…”
“….Now I am unsure if the precise appointment was set, however I do bear in mind realizing one thing… See, my administration and what I felt on the time, as ‘Hollywood,’ wished me to get my nostril ‘fastened’… ‘fastened,’ ‘modified’ … however ‘modified’ to what? I noticed they wished me to alter my nostril to look extra like a white individual’s nostril. See, I am Filipino, I am not a Latin actor or light-skinned Black actor, who possibly if I simply modified a bit factor, like my nostril… unexpectedly I can possibly cross for white,” he wrote.
“I simply figured it doesn’t matter what my nostril appears like, I am by no means going to have the ability to cross for white, and all these ‘white’ roles are by no means going to open up for me, no less than not in that approach, and in the end, that is not how I wished to play this sport in Hollywood… I deliberate to make it one other approach. So I saved my nostril, my Filipino nostril… this ethnic nostril, anyway you take a look at it. This Basco nostril, the identical one that’s on my dad’s face, his brothers’ face, my cousins’, and my grandmother’s… & I succeeded on this city in any case,” he concluded.
5.
In 2025, Winona Ryder instructed Elle that, just lately, feminine administrators have been advising her to start out Botox. She mentioned, “They will say, ‘Simply chill out your brow. Calm down.’ I am making an attempt to be a fantastic actor, they usually’re saying that again and again. It is good that persons are speaking about the way it’s OK to age, however there’s nonetheless huge strain. Each position I get is for a mom, you understand? My profession has undoubtedly shifted.”
“So, I feel what I aspire to, lastly, is to play the choose who’s like, ‘Chambers now, counselor! Too far!'” she added.
6.
In 2023, Rosie Perez instructed Selection, “I do not need her [the agent she had around the time she did 21 Jump Street] to be canceled, however she instructed me that if I dyed my hair blonde and bought a nostril job, I ‘can get you extra jobs. Since you’re not Black.’ I could not consider it. I used to be like, ‘Oh, my goodness. Like, thanks, fired.'”
After sacking her agent, Rosie “had no one” and “had no cash.” Nevertheless, she discovered an ally in her Felony Justice costar Jennifer Gray, who’d been pressured right into a nostril job that broken her profession. Rosie mentioned, “Jennifer and I clicked immediately. I have never seen that lady in ages, however I simply assume she’s phenomenal. She’s like, ‘I can’t consider how racist this business is.’ She picks up the cellphone and calls Jane Berliner at CAA and says, ‘You could signify this actress.'”
7.
Whereas Kirsten Dunst was taking pictures Spider-Man, a producer whisked her off to the dentist to have her smile straightened. She had no concept the appointment had been made. In 2024, she instructed GQ, “I used to be like, ‘No, I like my enamel.'”
She later felt inspired by The Virgin Suicides director Sofia Coppola, who “beloved” her enamel. Kirsten mentioned, “I did not notice on the time. I noticed it [later] in choices I had made. To not change enamel, to not blow up my lips, or no matter it’s that everybody desires to seem like. I nonetheless know to this present day, I am not gonna screw up my face and seem like a freak. You already know what I imply? I might somewhat get previous and do good roles.”
8.
On the 2017 Ladies in Movie Los Angeles’ Crystal + Lucy Awards, Elizabeth Banks mentioned, “The primary agent I ever met on this business instructed me to get a boob job. I used to be so grateful that I did not have the funds for on the time to comply with his recommendation. I additionally didn’t signal with him regardless of that.”
9.
Talking on a panel on the 2024 Comedian-Con Worldwide, The Boys actor Claudia Doumit mentioned, “It is a wonderful half-Lebanese, half-Italian nostril. It’s very sturdy. And it was simply sort of that, like, to get a nostril job, after which I might e-book roles that have been, you understand, the ingenue and fairly and the main actress. And that was fed to me for a lot of, a few years. And I bear in mind, ever since a younger age, I believed to myself, ‘Once I e-book my first job, I am gonna get a nostril job. I am gonna get the pay for that and get a nostril job.’ After which I booked my first job, and I did not get a nostril job.”
She continued, “I did not get a nostril job, after which I booked the subsequent job. And I believed, ‘I am going to get it now.’ And I did not get a nostril job. After which I saved reserving jobs and never getting nostril jobs. And I sort of realized in the future that I used to be reserving jobs with the way in which that I appeared, and I believed, ‘Oh, I do not want a nostril job as a result of I am reserving jobs. I am doing the factor I really like, and I am doing it the way in which I look.’ And it is not what the standard narrative is. It is not what lots of people would possibly assume magnificence is. However I feel it is lovely, and I feel I wanna see extra massive noses on ladies on the display. So, go, child.”
10.
In 2014, Julia Roberts instructed You journal, “By Hollywood requirements, I assume I’ve already taken a giant danger in not having had a facelift. However I’ve instructed Lancome that I need to be an getting old mannequin – so that they must hold me for no less than 5 extra years till I am over 50.”
11.
In 2011, Kate Winslet instructed the Telegraph that she’d by no means succumb to business strain to have work finished. She mentioned, “It goes in opposition to my morals, the way in which that my dad and mom introduced me up and what I contemplate to be pure magnificence. I’ll by no means give in… I’m an actress, I do not need to freeze the expression of my face.”
And in 2024, she instructed Harper’s Bazaar, “I feel individuals know higher than to say, ‘You would possibly wanna do one thing about these wrinkles.’ I am extra comfy in myself as every year passes. It allows me to permit the opinions of others to evaporate.”
12.
In 2022, Lea Michele instructed City & Nation journal, “Truthfully, it is all been one unbelievable dream on high of an unbelievable dream. [Growing up,] individuals would inform me to get nostril jobs, that I wasn’t fairly sufficient for movie and tv.”
Beforehand, in 2019, she instructed At the moment, “I really like my nostril as a result of it is mine. Rising up, I labored on Broadway, and I at all times wished to transition into presumably doing movie and tv. From a really younger age, I have to’ve been possibly solely 13 years previous, I began being instructed by managers and brokers that so as to make it on tv or be on covers of magazines, that I used to be going to must get a nostril job. I feel that folks ought to have the ability to make their very own selections. If that is one thing that somebody desires to do, then nice; it is your physique and it is your selection. However nobody was going to make that selection for me. And I did not need to do this.”
“I wished to have a look at my face and have it’s my face. And why I am so grateful that I selected that — made that call and caught true to what was proper for me — was as a result of I did transfer to Los Angeles and I ended up touchdown a job that, possibly if I had appeared totally different, I would not have gotten the job,” she mentioned.
13.
In 2015, Halle Berry instructed Yahoo Magnificence, “It’s strain. Once you see all people round you doing it, you’ve got these moments while you assume, ‘To remain alive on this enterprise, do I have to do the identical factor?’ I will not lie and inform you that these issues do not cross my thoughts, as a result of any individual is at all times suggesting it to me. ‘You already know, in the event you simply did a bit little bit of this and that, carry this up, then this could be a bit bit higher.’ It is virtually like crack that persons are making an attempt to push on you. That is what I really feel like. I simply have saved reminding myself that magnificence actually is as magnificence does, and it isn’t a lot about my bodily self.”
She continued, “Getting older is pure, and that is going to occur to all of us. I consider these ladies that I believed aged so fantastically, like Lena Horne. Even how Jane Fonda is getting old — I do not know what she has or hasn’t finished, however she appears lovely as she’s going about her approach. I simply need to at all times seem like myself, even when that is an older model of myself. I feel while you do an excessive amount of of that beauty stuff, you grow to be any individual else in a approach… We now have to cease eager to seem like that decade earlier than. We now have to cease coveting that. Let it go and embrace it now and actually be OK. It is easy to say, I assume, however that is the objective.”
14.
In 2017, Debra Messing alleged to Elle.com that A Stroll within the Clouds director Alfonso Arau declared that she wanted a rhinoplasty in entrance of everybody. She mentioned, “I might by no means been on a movie earlier than. I used to be doing a love scene with Keanu Reeves. We began filming, and the very well-known director screamed, ‘Minimize’ and mentioned, ‘How shortly can we get a plastic surgeon in right here? Her nostril is ruining my film.'”
“It was a shock. I used to be so assured popping out of graduate faculty with my grasp’s in appearing. I might studied in London, and I used to be so effectively geared up with talent units, after which to stroll on set and have that occur — I used to be lowered to an un-Hollywood nostril,” she mentioned.
“It is taken me years and years and years to lastly personal my variations and to like what’s totally different about me, and to return nose to nose with a fact inside my business, inside our tradition. There’s a very slender definition of what a wonderful, important, vibrant, fascinating lady appears like, and that is the factor we’re continually combating in opposition to. My whole profession I have been swimming in that pond, the place it is like, ‘Oh no, you do not look proper,'” she concluded.
15.
In 2014, Sophia Loren instructed the Hollywood Reporter, “I at all times tried to not hear to those individuals. They have been saying that my nostril was too lengthy and my mouth was too massive. It did not harm me in any respect as a result of after I consider in one thing, it is like battle. It is a battle. However even Carlo [Ponti, her husband] mentioned, ‘You already know, the cameramen, they are saying that your nostril is simply too lengthy. Perhaps you need to contact it a bit bit.'”
“And I mentioned, ‘Hear, I do not need to contact nothing on my face as a result of I like my face. If I’ve to alter my nostril, I’m going again to Pozzuoli.’ At the moment, they used to do noses like a French nostril with a bit tip on the finish — they favored that. Are you able to think about me with a nostril like that?” she mentioned.
16.
Throughout a 2023 look on You Quiz on the Block, Ok-drama star and The Marvels actor Park Search engine optimization-joon mentioned, “I auditioned a bunch of instances earlier than I made my debut, and I did not cross all of them. I used to be additionally usually instructed off at auditions. I suffered from low shallowness then… It was due to the way in which I appeared. The usual of magnificence was fairly totally different again then; sturdy and sharp facial options have been in pattern. So, I hated how my eyes appeared. Loads of casting administrators instructed me to get cosmetic surgery. Some have been even like, ‘What’s that face? What sort of world do you come from?'”
“As I repeatedly bought instructed to get cosmetic surgery, I step by step misplaced my confidence. I saved asking myself, ‘Am I doing one thing incorrect right here? Perhaps this path is not for me.’ It was tough to proceed pushing myself to attempt, going by all that. It wasn’t like I knew my future was going to be brilliant as effectively. However I toughed it out, and fortunately, issues labored out for me,” he mentioned.
17.
In 2023, Coronation Avenue actor Dame Maureen Lipman instructed the Telegraph, “Al Parker was a movie agent who instructed me I might must get my nostril finished as a result of I did not have a movie face. He despatched me to a plastic surgeon on Harley Avenue, the place I noticed that I might change my agent somewhat than my nostril. In these days, they gave all people the identical nostril – a bit retroussé. I am glad I did not have that as a result of you may’t actually play character elements terribly effectively with a retroussé nostril.”
“I am too frightened to have something finished, actually. I may not like what I see, however no less than it is roughly what God gave me. I do not need to seem like somebody’s pumped me up with a motorbike pump,” she added.
18.
In 2024, stage and display actor Dame Sheila Hancock recalled what it was like not becoming ’50s magnificence requirements, telling the BBC, “I had zits, so I had a foul pores and skin. Any individual noticed me in Bromley Rep doing a efficiency as a mannequin, they usually requested me to go and see them within the workplace. He sat me underneath a lamp and mentioned, ‘Nicely, you may must have cosmetic surgery as a result of my nostril is so odd, you understand?’ So I did not match the sample of what’s greatest to seem like as a girl, actually, in these days.”
19.
And eventually, in 2023, Ruth Wilson instructed the Guardian, “As an actress, everybody does [Botox and fillers]. Only a few resist. I have never finished something – but. However it’s in my head as like, ‘Nicely, do you resolve to not and due to this fact doubtlessly look older than your friends? Or do you simply give in?'”
She continued, “We’re like, ‘Wow,’ at this time. However in 200 years, they will be wanting again at photos of ladies now going, ‘What have been they doing?’ ‘What’s that? You are blowing your face and lips up.’ But it is a multibillion-dollar business. And girls are a part of that business, perpetuating this ’empowerment.'”
