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Hollywood is notorious for its impossible beauty standards! Join MsMojo as we explore the stories of celebrated actresses who were cruelly told they didn't have the looks for stardom. From Oscar winners to pop icons, these talented women faced rejection based solely on appearance, yet persevered to become some of entertainment's biggest names. Which story will shock you the most?
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00:00Who's an American beauty rose with an American beauty note?
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're exploring the stories of actresses who were told at some
00:11point in their careers that they didn't have the looks to compete in Hollywood.
00:20Selena Gomez. Although she's an Emmy nominee, international pop star, and a Disney legend,
00:26the star of Only Murders in the Building has shared her insecurities with fans.
00:31To be honest, it was a little bit of a struggle for me to be okay with
00:34being that vulnerable, but I do know there's strength in that.
00:38During a 2013 concert in Connecticut, the then 21-year-old opened up about being told she wasn't
00:43sexy enough for her career. She even felt the need to pull away from social media as a result of this.
00:49Given her massive influence in pop culture and the world at large, her looks are the least of
00:54her accomplishments. Having said that, whoever's telling her she's not attractive enough should
01:11go get an eye exam. Whoopi Goldberg. Even in the 1980s, an African-American movie star was still
01:18something of a rarity. Whoopi Goldberg's stardom was monumental and game-changing, but being a trailblazer
01:24left her open to attacks from ignorant and unimaginative executives, directors, and entertainment
01:29journalists.
01:30Until you do right by me, everything you think about is gonna crime.
01:35Speaking with Roger Ebert, she talked about how Fatal Beauty director Tom Holland openly told her
01:41she wasn't attractive to him. She's talked since then about her struggles being taken seriously
01:46during the early part of her career. Despite this, she had one of the most successful and consistent
01:52careers before she pivoted to taking on hot topics on The View.
01:55I have never, ever seen anything like this. I've never seen anybody whip up such hate.
02:03I've never seen anybody be so dismissive.
02:06Bella Ramsey. The history-making Emmy nominee from HBO's The Last of Us has endured a lot of
02:12criticism from fans of the franchise. And Ellie did feel like someone that was already like
02:16inside of me, which is a bit weird. And I don't really, I still don't really understand what that
02:21means even when I say it, but I know that it feels true. There's a fine line between being a passionate
02:26fan and being horrible. These social media users crossed that line several times. Ramsey's casting
02:32as beloved character Ellie faced attacks before the show even premiered. The initial hateful response
02:37was based purely on looks and very quickly went beyond the pale. It's one thing to have a problem
02:43with a casting choice. It's another thing altogether to heap abuse on a performer due to
02:47their appearance. Ramsey left social media over the constant abuse, which only intensified in the
02:52show's second season. You're such an asshole. Lizzie Kaplan. This unforgettable performer from Mean Girls
02:59knows a thing or two about how cruel people can be about other people's looks.
03:03Oh, you'll get socialized all right. A little slice like you. What are you talking about?
03:07You're a regulation hottie. Lizzie Kaplan, who was most known for playing Janice Ian in the Tina Fey
03:13Penn High School comedy, was once told she wasn't pretty enough to be on a WB show. Not being quote
03:19WB pretty became a private joke between her and a friend who never landed the WB roles they auditioned
03:25for. Kaplan clearly didn't need the network to get ahead. She has since enjoyed a successful career
03:30for major outfits like Showtime and Hulu. You really think I'm good enough?
03:34Joy, I think you're the best artist in the whole world.
03:37Elle Fanning. The entertainment industry's obsession with performers' looks can be a hard
03:41thing to learn. Elle Fanning was young when she found that out. During a round table for
03:46The Hollywood Reporter, she discussed losing a role in a comedy when she was young.
03:50I laugh at it now. I'm like, what a disgusting pig. But you know, and how do you digest that and
03:57then keep going? She ended up finding out the discouraging reason. A decision maker on the
04:02project deemed her not sexy enough. The comment would be bad enough. But the fact that she was
04:07so young at the time and going up for an age appropriate role only makes that reasoning so much
04:12worse. Judy Dench. The grand dame of British acting didn't really start making movies until
04:24she was in her 50s. It's a testament to the adage that it's never too late to pursue your goals.
04:30But the reason she took so long is a little sadder.
04:42Despite her many years on the stage, Judi Dench was actually discouraged from taking film roles.
04:48Though she made a couple movies in the 1960s, a director flat out told her that she had the
04:52quote, wrong face for the screen. These are the forgeries of jealousy.
04:58Her Oscar, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards prove otherwise. Dench, who preferred the stage
05:04anyway, said this made her wary of shifting gears. Kate Beckinsale. Director Michael Bay clearly had a
05:10lot to say about his female lead on the set of Pearl Harbor. He insisted Kate Beckinsale would
05:15have to lose weight for the role. Considering the actress had just had a child and had already lost
05:20weight, she had questions about how thin a 1940s nurse would really be.
05:27I don't understand.
05:29The director repeated his comments about Beckinsale's looks and weight during the press cycle for the film.
05:35Bay's insistence that Beckinsale was pretty but not pretty enough to alienate female viewers
05:40is one of the most backhanded compliments imaginable.
05:43I kind of like you.
05:47Oh, you do.
05:49Gabourey Sidibe. Earning an Oscar nomination for her film debut, the star of Precious dealt with her
05:55fair share of criticism for her looks. Speaking with Andy Cohen, she described a run-in with Joan
06:01Cusack before she had landed her lauded role. Cusack told her to quit the business because,
06:06in her words, it was too, quote, image-conscious.
06:10But then she'd see the worry on my face and she'd say,
06:12the longest journey began with a single step.
06:15Sidibe's perspective on Cusack's advice was generous. She imagined Cusack was speaking from
06:20a place of experience, but what she faced from people who weren't so concerned for her emotional
06:25well-being was even worse. In spite of criticism and downright abuse about her physical appearance,
06:31Cidibay flat-out doesn't care what other people think of her body.
06:42Emma Thompson. If there's one actress we can trust not to suffer fools, it's Emma Thompson.
06:49Throughout the years, she's taken on some of the most challenging roles in movies.
06:53But one type of role seems to have eluded her.
06:55So you've never had?
06:58No, never had.
07:00During press for her 2022 comedy, Good Luck to You, Leo Grand,
07:05Thompson remarked that she was rarely offered roles that called for nudity or sex scenes.
07:09She is candid, as always, about how executives, directors, and even entertainment journalists
07:15never saw hers as the kind of body they wanted to see on screen. These criticisms became even more
07:21pronounced after she stopped worrying about being thin.
07:24Don't waste your time. Don't waste your life's purpose. Worrying about your body. This is your
07:29vessel. It's your house. It's where you live. There's no point in judging it.
07:34Sally Field. After years of success on TV, the Flying Nun star was ready to take her talents to the big
07:40screen. Unfortunately, the audition process for Smokey and the Bandit was anything but smooth.
07:46Last time I saw legs like that, they had a message tied to them. What do you mean? These are great
07:51little legs. Co-star and future partner Burt Reynolds had to fight for her to be cast,
07:56as producers felt that she wasn't sexy enough to play the movie's quirky runaway bride.
08:01Field's agent parroted that same sentiment when she announced she wanted to transition to movies.
08:06So it was just a risk. You just sometimes take a risk. The agent soon became her ex-agent,
08:12and she went on to win an Oscar in spite of them all. Kristen Bell. This popular actress from Michigan
08:19became successful at a relatively young age. She broke into the mainstream by playing the
08:24titular character on Veronica Mars, which debuted in September of 2004.
08:29I suddenly feel like I'm in a scene from The Outsiders.
08:32Be cool, soda pop.
08:33Bell had just turned 24 years old. It was shortly before this that she continuously received some
08:39rather deterring feedback. As she explains in a video for Vanity Fair, Bell was repeatedly told
08:45in auditions that, quote, she wasn't pretty enough to play the pretty girl.
08:49And I was like, okay, so does that just mean like I can't be an actor? Like, what does that mean?
08:54It's the kind of particularly blunt statement that Hollywood is known for. But Bell got the last laugh,
09:00and she was even included on People's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2008.
09:05Kesha. The music industry is a tough business, and its stars are told some terrible things.
09:11You say I look like I just cried out of a trash can. You say I'm obnoxious. Nobody was asking.
09:18Kesha broke onto the scene in 2009 when she was featured on Flo Rida's Right Round. And she later
09:24found success with solo efforts like TikTok and We Are Who We Are. Shortly after she topped the charts,
09:31Kesha was allegedly confronted by her producer, Dr. Luke, who repeatedly criticized her weight gain.
09:37He allegedly called her fat, demanded that her management team intervene, and at one point,
09:43referred to her as a, quote, refrigerator. This caused enormous self-esteem issues in the singer,
09:49and she attended rehab for eating disorder treatment in 2014.
09:52Most days I could barely fathom getting out of bed, just lying there, half awake, half alive.
10:02Minka Kelly. It's weird that a literal model was told she wasn't pretty enough for Hollywood,
10:07but so is often the case in the industry. Minka Kelly was testing for a modeling agency when she
10:13attracted the attention of a Playboy Playmate. The unnamed Playmate offered to manage the young model,
10:19provided she got a ton of plastic surgery, like liposuction, veneers, and a breast augmentation.
10:25I'm on the other side of a lot of really painful and shameful experiences and mindsets that I feel like
10:31it's not mine anymore. It's my responsibility now to share it.
10:37She even got Kelly into a surgeon's office, where she would work as a receptionist in exchange for the surgery.
10:43Kelly eventually declined the offer, and later found success on Friday Night Lights,
10:48playing Lila Garrity.
10:49You think it's been easy for me to help you in and out of that chair?
10:52Well, no one's holding a gun to your head, Lila!
10:54I do it because I love you, stupid! But now you're sitting here feeling sorry for yourself!
10:59She would also be named Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive in 2010.
11:03Minnie Driver.
11:04An Emmy and Oscar-nominated actress, Minnie Driver has found success in a number of TV shows and movies.
11:11She is perhaps best known for playing Skylar in Good Will Hunting,
11:14for which she received the aforementioned Oscar nomination.
11:18Gotta get up early and waste some more money on my overpriced education.
11:22But the role also opened some personal scars. Driver has revealed that an unknown producer who
11:27worked on the movie told her that she wasn't, quote, hot enough for the role.
11:31I can't imagine anyone turning down Minnie Driver.
11:34Oh, thanks.
11:34Come on.
11:35But no, they did.
11:36As she told The Cut, this resurrected old insecurities that she harbored about her physical appearance.
11:41However, both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck fought for Driver, and she was ultimately cast in the film.
11:48Gwyneth Paltrow.
11:49Say what you will about Gwyneth Paltrow as a person, but there's no denying that she is beautiful.
11:54In fact, people named her the world's most beautiful woman in 2013, the same year she starred in Iron Man 3.
12:01I got you.
12:05Years earlier, she tried out for a role in the 1994 drama Golden Gate starring Matt Dillon and Joan Chen.
12:12However, she was allegedly rejected because she was considered, quote, too plain.
12:17I feel very lucky that I'm no longer in my 20s and struggling with those very specific set of life issues.
12:25But no matter, Paltrow would break out just a couple of years later with successful movies like Seven and Sliding Doors,
12:32becoming one of the most successful actresses in Hollywood.
12:36Reese Witherspoon.
12:37This actress is so beautiful that even science agrees.
12:41Philadelphia's Temple University School of Medicine conducted a study to determine the most objectively attractive female face.
12:49They found that women with heart-shaped faces and cheekbones as wide as their eyebrows could be considered mathematically beautiful,
12:57and Witherspoon was used as an example in the press.
13:00What, like it's hard?
13:01And yet, even she was deemed unsuitable for Hollywood.
13:05Witherspoon revealed in an interview with the Daily Mail that she was constantly rejected as a young actress for being,
13:11quote,
13:11However, she credits her stubborn personality for getting her through the denigration.
13:20You know, I'm just gonna be stupid and that's cute.
13:22I just think that's kind of, I don't know, I just don't think it's a good message for young women.
13:27Leah Michelle.
13:28There's an episode in Glee that sees Leah Michelle's Rachel Berry considering a nose job.
13:33She's told that it's a rite of passage for Jewish girls, but she ultimately decides against it.
13:50Well, this particular subplot mirrors something that Michelle actually went through as a young teenager.
13:55During a talk with Today Style, Michelle revealed that she was pressured by industry executives to get a nose job when she was just 13 years old.
14:03I wanted to look in my face and have it be my face.
14:07According to them, it was the only way that she would be able to transition from Broadway to television.
14:13She refused, and poetically enough, it's what may have contributed to her being cast as Rachel.
14:19Jennifer Lawrence.
14:20This Oscar-winning actress was repeatedly told that she was too large for certain roles.
14:26She would once again be told this when it came to her being cast as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games.
14:32Lawrence refused to harm her body for the role,
14:34saying that she was also thinking of the damage it might cause in young girls wanting to dress up as Katniss.
14:40I don't know if I want all of the girls who are going to dress up as Katniss to feel like they can't because they are not a certain weight.
14:47I don't know if that, I can't let that seep into my brain either.
14:50She feared they would believe they'd have to lose weight to look like the character if Lawrence herself looked thinner.
14:56Unfortunately, movie reviews of The Hunger Games also targeted the actress's weight,
15:01with The Hollywood Reporter saying that she had, quote,
15:03lingering baby fat,
15:05and The New York Times signaling what they called her, quote,
15:08seductive womanly figure.
15:11Not to mention the fortune-telling of,
15:13is the audience going to love this?
15:14Is the audience going to hate this?
15:15Sarah Jessica Parker.
15:17It says a lot about Hollywood that publications host unsexiest women lists.
15:22Back in 2007, Sex and the City's Sarah Jessica Parker was named Maxim's number one unsexiest woman alive.
15:30Writing that she was the, quote,
15:32least sexy woman in a group of very unsexy women.
15:36I am humiliated!
15:38I'm sorry.
15:39I'm sorry.
15:40This unfortunate distinction came three years after the show concluded,
15:44and one year before its big movie continuation,
15:47which went on to gross over $400 million.
15:50Parker later told Grazia that the classification, quote,
15:54hurt so much and upset her husband, Matthew Broderick.
15:58She concludes with a very mature, quote,
16:01I guess you can't please all people.
16:03The problem is not your thighs, sweetie.
16:05The problem is your head.
16:07Judy Garland.
16:08This iconic movie star is one of the biggest victims of the merciless Hollywood machine.
16:13Barely into her teens, Judy Garland was horrifically called a, quote,
16:18fat little pig with pigtails.
16:20And studios vehemently demanded that she lose weight for the big screen.
16:24I'm honestly very hungry.
16:25Those will take the edge off.
16:30She was put on a strict diet consisting of coffee,
16:33chicken soup, and cigarettes to suppress her appetite.
16:36She was also forced to take pills,
16:38both to keep her working over long hours and to ensure that she remained thin.
16:43You can't have a Dorothy who puts on weight halfway through the picture.
16:45Unfortunately, this resulted in a debilitating substance use disorder
16:49that would haunt Garland for the rest of her life.
16:52Kate Winslet.
16:53While appearing as a speaker at Wee Day UK,
16:56Winslet told the audience that she was relentlessly bullied as a child and teenager
17:00for her weight and big feet,
17:02and that she was often called blubber by her classmates.
17:05She was also allegedly told that she wasn't attractive,
17:08and that she would only make it as an actor
17:10as long as she was happy to settle for the fat girl parts.
17:13Despite the roadblocks,
17:14she appeared in BBC's Dark Season at age 15,
17:18and subsequently won her first BAFTA at 20
17:20for her performance as Marianne in Sense and Sensibility.
17:24For heaven's sake, Willoughby,
17:26tell me what is wrong.
17:29And where are her bullies now?
17:31I said no!
17:34Pink.
17:35Pink always comes across as an incredibly confident person,
17:38despite the fact that she's apparently never felt conventionally attractive.
17:41While talking to Red Book,
17:43Pink said that she was criticized from day one,
17:46and told that she was never going to make magazine covers
17:49because she wasn't pretty enough.
17:51Ever the badass,
17:52Pink took those harsh words and rolled with them.
17:55She told the magazine,
17:56the cover of which she adorned,
17:58that she was perfectly comfortable with not being conventionally beautiful,
18:01and that she's always put more focus into other aspects of her life,
18:04such as her happiness,
18:06family,
18:06and health.
18:07Kat Dennings.
18:08Despite having starred in a hit CBS series,
18:11Kat Dennings apparently does not consider herself a conventional Hollywood star.
18:16Don't get any ideas.
18:18According to a New York Times report,
18:20Dennings calls herself socially weird,
18:23and hates attending Hollywood parties.
18:25The co-creator of Two Broke Girls,
18:27Michael Patrick King,
18:28also stated that Dennings tended to stay in her apartment on weekends.
18:32Part of this non-Hollywood lifestyle is refusing to listen to advice.
18:35Caroline,
18:36the problem is that this is not going to compete with perfect little that,
18:39okay?
18:39It's time to go.
18:40Night is over.
18:41She stated that previous casting agents have told her to fix her teeth,
18:45dye her hair,
18:46and lose weight,
18:47all of which she has refused to do.
18:49And now she's a millionaire,
18:51so who's laughing now?
18:52Nia Vardalos.
18:54Nia Vardalos takes great pride in her Greek heritage,
18:57and leveraged her lineage to create her most prominent role,
19:00that of Tula Porticalis in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
19:03And her agent never saw it coming.
19:05I'm not leaving you.
19:06Don't you want me to do something with my life?
19:08Oh, yes.
19:10Get married.
19:11Make babies.
19:13You look so old.
19:15When Vardalos was first starting out,
19:17her acting agent quit after telling her that she wasn't pretty enough to be a leading lady,
19:21and that no one was writing Greek roles.
19:23Because my agent dropped me.
19:25She told me I wasn't pretty enough to be a leading lady.
19:28Yeah.
19:29I'm not fat enough to be a character actress.
19:31Like, she didn't say,
19:32you're not fat.
19:32Like, a character.
19:33She's like,
19:33you're not fat enough.
19:35Vardalos channeled her frustration,
19:37and wrote a one-woman play about a Greek wedding,
19:39which was fortuitously seen by Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks.
19:43They then helped produce the movie adaptation through Hank's company Playtone,
19:46and the rest is history.
19:48Guess what?
19:49I think I'm pretty enough and fat enough to do anything I want.
19:52Mindy Kaling.
19:53After leaving college,
19:55Mindy Kaling moved to New York and co-wrote a play about Ben Affleck and Matt Damon called
19:59Matt and Ben.
20:00She then moved to Los Angeles and landed a writing gig on The Office,
20:04where she gradually became one of the show's most prominent supporting characters.
20:07I didn't have any experience writing in TV.
20:09And you feel like you have to work harder.
20:10And I felt like I had to work harder.
20:12And I have to say,
20:13like,
20:13it was a great lesson to learn,
20:14because I did work harder,
20:15but then it's like,
20:16I wrote the most episodes in The Office of any writer there.
20:18Around this time,
20:19she was offered a sketch show at an unnamed and now defunct network.
20:23But hear this.
20:24After being personally offered the show,
20:26she was forced to audition for the role of herself.
20:30And she didn't get it because she wasn't considered attractive enough
20:33for playing herself.
20:35Yeah,
20:35try to wrap your head around that one.
20:37Suffice it to say,
20:38Kaling flourished in spite of the experience.
20:41It's so weird being my own role model.
20:43You know,
20:44I recommend it.
20:44Viola Davis.
20:45In the 2014 article,
20:47Rot in Rhyme's Image,
20:49by Alessandra Stanley,
20:50the journalist wrote,
20:52Davis doesn't look at all like the typical star of a network drama.
20:55Don't ask for the truth.
20:58You pounded out of them.
21:00Relentless in your pursuit of the answer you want.
21:02She then went on to call her
21:04less classically beautiful than Kerry Washington,
21:07another leading lady of a Shonda Rhimes show.
21:09Davis responded on The View,
21:11saying,
21:11She also stated that classically not beautiful is a euphemism for being ugly,
21:21and that hearing it used greatly affected her as a child.
21:24Classy and eloquent as always,
21:26Davis's response was a poignant and empowering one,
21:29and was unsurprisingly praised by many.
21:32Winona Ryder
21:33Winona Ryder attributes her success to playing non-conventional characters.
21:37In an interview with, uh, interview,
21:40Ryder says that her first five or six movie roles,
21:42including that of Rina in Lucas,
21:44were specifically written as being non-attractive in the scripts.
21:48Wanna go?
21:51Thanks, I have a date.
21:53And calling herself unusual looking,
21:55she took to those roles that eventually granted her access to bigger and better things.
22:00Ryder also told a story of when she was 15 or 16,
22:03and a casting director stopped her mid-sentence to bluntly state that she wasn't pretty enough for Hollywood,
22:08and that she should go back to school.
22:10All we want is to be treated like human beings,
22:12not to be experimented on like guinea pigs or patronized like bunny rabbits.
22:17I don't patronize bunny rabbits.
22:19Ryder obviously didn't heed her advice,
22:21and it led to a decades-long career in show business.
22:24I need you to believe me.
22:27Please.
22:29Lady Gaga
22:29Gaga is quite the glamorous celebrity,
22:32so it's a little weird to hear that people thought she wasn't pretty enough to make it big.
22:36And to think, this was before she started wearing meat to work.
22:39An old friend of Gaga's recently told People that Gaga faced an incredible uphill battle
22:44while trying to make it in the music biz.
22:46Not only was she not being taken seriously,
22:48but she was also being told, without subtlety or tact,
22:52that she wasn't pretty enough to be a mainstream pop artist.
22:55She clearly channeled a lot of that frustration into her role as Ally in A Star Is Born,
22:59a role which has earned her heaps of praise.
23:02Almost every single person that I've come in contact with in the music industry
23:06has told me that my nose is too big and that I won't make it.
23:09Your nose is too big?
23:11Yeah.
23:11Barbara Streisand
23:12It's no secret that Barbara Streisand has a prominent nose.
23:16It's long been one of her defining characteristics,
23:18and it's been endlessly parodied and referenced in pop culture over the years.
23:22Honey, I'm going shopping.
23:27And I was going to valet park.
23:29But the fact that she's attained a level of popularity worthy of parody speaks volumes.
23:35When Streisand was first starting out, she was often called too Jewish-looking
23:39and was relentlessly bullied for the size of her nose.
23:42She was told, in no uncertain terms, that she would never make it in showbiz because of it,
23:47but she refused to get plastic surgery.
23:49Esther, what do you think about the reviews on your new album?
23:51I haven't read them.
23:52Her angelic voice and natural ability quickly shut the critics up,
23:56proving that talent can take you further than rhinoplasty any day.
24:00I'd love to hear an audience applaud, but you can't take an audience home with you.
24:03Now I want a personal life to, and I'm going to have it.
24:06Why don't you just wish me luck?
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24:23Meryl Streep
24:24Just imagine being the person who once criticized Meryl Streep.
24:28Back in the late 70s, Streep was looking to branch out of theater and into film.
24:33One of her first auditions was for the 1976 remake of King Kong,
24:37the one that time has largely forgotten.
24:39According to Streep, the producer turned to his son and asked him why he brought in such an ugly woman.
24:44Streep, in turn, scornfully apologized for not being, quote,
24:48as beautiful as she should be.
24:50So I said to him,
24:53You know, but I understand what you're saying.
24:57I'm sorry I'm not beautiful enough to be in King Kong.
25:03Clearly, Streep wasn't pretty enough for a King Kong remake,
25:06but now she's arguably the most admired actress of all time.
25:09So really, who came out on top here?
25:12I don't know.
25:13That wasn't a question.
25:14Which star were you most surprised to find on this list?
25:18Let us know in the comments.
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