There’s been in a shift in Tinseltown, USA, where Hollywood filmmakers and casting executives are re-thinking their definition of beauty.
“Television executives at Fox Broadcasting say they have begun recruiting more natural looking actors from Australia and Britain…because the amply endowed, freakishly young-looking crowd that shows up for auditions in Los Angeles suffers from too much sameness.” – The New York Times
The same actresses who were encouraged to nip, tuck, and implant their bodies in order to be on the A-List are shocked to find themselves at the back of the line behind natural beauties from Australia, including Rose Byrne, Mia Wasikowska, Adelaide Kane, and the famously full-figured and all-natural Rebel Wilson.
The chief engine behind the less-is-more trend is public opinion. Changing social views about beauty and a strong push towards self-love makes a real girl (or guy) a valuable commodity in Hollywood, even if it has to be imported from the Southern Hemisphere.
Only Real Breasts Need Apply
Authenticity is especially desirable in period pieces and costume dramas. When the Walt Disney Company began casting the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean, the casting notice specified that only women with real breasts need apply.
The Starz cable network recently began casting for Magic City, a 1950’s Miami Beach drama with full frontal nudity. Finding women whose figures resembled what was normal more than 50 years ago – big hips and voluptuous curves – proved to be quite a challenge.
“I’ve actually had better luck finding synchronized swimming groups than I did finding real boobs (in Florida),” said casting director Bill Marinella.
It’s Not the Procedure, It’s the Practitioner
Looking unnatural is just one problem that too much cosmetic surgery can create for screen stars. Actors and actresses privately fret about rendering themselves unemployable by limiting their expressive range with nips, tucks, and injections. In truth, it’s not cosmetic surgery that should be blamed for this problem. It’s the execution that’s to blame.
Take actress Margot Robbie. She was notably cast over eager American actresses to play a plummy love scene opposite Leonardo de Caprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. She is rumoured to have had breast implants, rhinoplasty, and filler injections. The work was done so skilfully, however, that she looks young and fresh, even in the nude.
The same is true for Isla Fisher, star of Confessions of a Shopaholic. She’s had lip-plumping treatments, but her mouth remains soft, natural, and kissable, at least on the screen.
There are, of course, Australian actresses who simply refuse to change their appearance.
“I’m not sitting on a soapbox telling women what they should and shouldn’t do, but I know what works for me. I’d just be too frightened about what it means long term. If you have all that stuff done, in the end … you just see the work.” – Cate Blanchett
And then there’s Jacki Weaver.An Oscar nominee for her work in Animal Kingdom and Silver Linings Playbook, the charming actress was worried that her fierce 60-something realness would make it difficult to continue to find work in Hollywood.
“Because I am 66 and getting these lines I said to my agent, Hildy Gottlieb… ‘I think I’d really like a nip and tuck and get rid of those lines’ and she said, ‘Don’t you touch your f**king face!'”