Hollywood is synonymous with impossible beauty standards. Even the most stunning actor you can imagine has probably been told there’s something about his or her appearance that needs to be “fixed.” While some artists decide go through the operating room Hoping to improve their career prospects, many others have flatly refused.
Here are 19 actors who rejected the advice of surgically changing themselves for the industry:
1.
In 1995, Sandra Oh met with a Los Angeles agent who advised her to consider cosmetic surgery because she was not “pretty enough” to be a leading actress. In 2018, Sandra said Vulture“It was the way she said, ‘Listen: I’m not going to lie to you. A lot of people are going to lie to you. But I don’t have anything for you here. I have Suzy Kim’ (I’m just making up names), ‘she has an audition in about six months. There’s nothing for a year. My best advice to you is to go home and become famous.'”
“There are a lot of people in our community who can relate to this feeling. I had already done everything I could to get to that A level, which is a star in theater, television, film, and somehow, that wasn’t enough for someone to say, ‘I think I can get you an audition.’ There’s like a dark needle or a nail that lives in the back of all of our heads, and that’s your fear. That’s like, ‘That’s true.’ There’s nothing there. And she says I don’t like it. to lie Other people are going to lie to you, but she won’t lie to you. She told the truth. Come back.’ I used a public phone to call [director Sturla Gunnarsson] and I couldn’t stop crying. “It just cut my knees.”
2.
speaking in Hollywood Reporter Dramatic Actresses Roundtable In 2025, Dame Helen Mirren said: “I was told to have a nose job when I was 20… Someone said, ‘You’ll never get a job if you don’t have a nose job’. I said no. I didn’t want to be a pretty actress anyway. I chose not to be that pretty.”
3.
In his 2021 memoirs UnfinishedPriyanka Chopra Jonas recalls her first encounter with a director after winning Miss World 2000. She wrote: “After a few minutes of small talk, the director/producer told me to stand up and turn for him. I did. He stared at me long and hard, sizing me up, and then suggested I get a boob job, fix my jaw, and add a little more cushion to my rear. If I wanted to be an actress, he said, I would need to have my proportions ‘fixed’ and he knew a great doctor in Los Angeles he could send me to. “My then-manager expressed his agreement with the evaluation.”
She said the encounter left her feeling “dazed and small.” Shortly after, he cut ties with that manager.
4.
in a 2010 blog post, Hook Actor Dante Basco wrote: “One day I remember having a conversation with my then-manager about the possibility of me getting a nose job. Yeah… a damn nose job! I don’t know, maybe I didn’t get a particular job, probably because of my looks. See, growing up in Hollywood, there weren’t many Filipino actors, and there were absolutely no Filipino roles, so my jobs consisted in playing anything from any form of Latino to any form of Asian and even some white or black roles for characters who couldn’t find good enough white or black kids. Like this question came up about a nose job… I must have been only 14 and they seriously asked me to seriously think about it…”
He continued: “A nose job… First of all, it was the ’80s and nose jobs were all the rage. Of course, the manager [cited] people like Michael Jackson who got a nose job and how it helped her career (at least that’s what she said). Even my then-acting teacher told me that Elvis Presley had a nose job early in his career (I’m still not sure if that’s true). she even [offered] to make an appointment with the doctor who did a friend’s nose. As a teenager, it’s a weird thing to think about… Hell, thinking about it now, it’s a little weird. The thing is that there were several people pressuring me to have this procedure done, and not just for business. I know there are certain people in my family, an aunt for sure, who would have jumped at the opportunity to ‘fix’ their nose. And it’s a pretty big deal to go and change that thing right in the middle of your face…”
“…Now I’m not sure if the actual quote was set, but I remember realizing something… Look, my management and what I felt at the time, like ‘Hollywood,’ they wanted me to be ‘fixed’… ‘fixed’, ‘changed’… but ‘changed’ to what? I realized they wanted me to change my nose to make it look more like a white person’s nose. Look, I’m Filipino, I’m not a Latino actor or an actor.” light-skinned black, who maybe? “If I just changed one little thing, like my nose… suddenly I can pass for white,” he wrote.
“I just thought that no matter what my nose looks like, I’ll never be able to pass for white, and all those ‘white’ roles will never open up to me, at least not in that way, and ultimately, that’s not how I wanted to play this game in Hollywood… I planned to do it another way. So I kept my nose, my Filipino nose… this ethnic nose, however you look at it. “This Basco nose, the same one that’s on the my father’s face, my brothers’ face, my cousins’ face, my grandmother’s face… and anyway I succeeded in this town,” he concluded.
5.
In 2025, Winona Ryder said she that, recently, directors have been advising her to start Botox. She said: “They’ll say, ‘Just relax your brow. Relax.’ I’m trying to be a great actor and they say it over and over again. It’s nice that people talk about how it’s okay to get older, but there’s still enormous pressure. Every role I get is for a mother, you know? My career has definitely changed.”
“So I think what I aspire to, ultimately, is to play the judge who says, ‘Cameras now, lawyer! Too far!'” he added.
6.
In 2023, Rosie Pérez said Variety“I don’t want her [the agent she had around the time she did 21 Jump Street] It was going to be cancelled, but she told me that if I dyed my hair blonde and got a nose job, I could get you more jobs. Because you’re not black.’ I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘Oh my God. Like, thank you, fired.'”
After firing her agent, Rosie “had no one” and “no money.” However, she found ally with her Criminal Justice his co-star Jennifer Gray, who had been pressed to a nose job that damaged his career. rosie saying“Jennifer and I clicked instantly. I haven’t seen that woman in a long time, but I think she’s phenomenal. She says, ‘I can’t believe how racist this industry is.’ She picks up the phone, calls Jane Berliner at CAA, and says, ‘You have to represent this actress.'”
7.
While Kirsten Dunst was filming spider mana producer took her to the dentist to have her smile fixed. I had no idea the appointment had been made. In 2024, she said GQ“I was like, ‘No, I like my teeth.'”
Later she was encouraged by He Virgin suicides director Sofia Coppola, who “loved” her teeth. Kirsten said: “I didn’t realize it at the time. I realized [later] in the decisions he had made. Not to change my teeth, not to inflate my lips, or whatever everyone wants to look like. I still know that today I’m not going to ruin my face and look like a weirdo. You know what I mean? “I prefer to grow old and play good roles.”
8.
To the 2017 Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards Los AngelesElizabeth Banks said: “The first agent I met in this industry told me to get a boob job. I was very grateful that I didn’t have enough money at the time to follow his advice. I didn’t sign with him despite that either.”
9.
speaking in a panel at Comic-Con International 2024, the boys Actress Claudia Doumit said: “It’s a beautiful half-Lebanese, half-Italian nose. It’s very strong. And it was kind of like, getting a nose job, and then I got roles that were, you know, the pretty ingénue and the lead actress. And I was taught that for many, many years. And I remember, from a very young age, thinking, ‘When I get my first job, I’m going to get a nose job.’ get paid for it and get a nose job. And then I got my first job and I didn’t have a nose job.”
She continued: “I didn’t get my nose done and then I booked the next job. And I thought, ‘I’ll do it now.’ And I didn’t get my nose done. And then I kept booking jobs and not getting my nose done. And one day I realized I was booking jobs because of my looks and I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t need a nose job because I’m booking jobs.’ I’m doing what I love and I’m doing it the way I look.” And that’s not what traditional storytelling is. It’s not what many people might think beauty is. But I think it’s beautiful and I think I want to see more big noses on women on screen. There you have it, honey.”
10.
In 2014, Julia Roberts said your magazine“By Hollywood standards, I guess I’ve already taken a big risk by not having a facelift. But I told Lancome that I want to be an aging model, so they have to keep me for at least five more years until I’m over 50.”
11.
In 2011, Kate Winslet told the telegraph that he would never succumb to industry pressure to get the job done. She said: “It goes against my morals, the way my parents raised me and what I consider natural beauty. I will never give up… I’m an actress, I don’t want to freeze the expression on my face.”
And in 2024, he said Harper’s Bazaar“I think people know not to say, ‘Maybe you want to do something about those wrinkles.’ I get more comfortable with myself with each passing year. It allows me to let other people’s opinions evaporate.”
12.
In 2022, Lea Michele said City Magazine & Country“Honestly, the whole thing has been an incredible dream on top of an incredible dream. [Growing up,] “People told me to get a nose job, that I wasn’t pretty enough for movies and television.”
Previously, in 2019, he said Today“I love my nose because it’s mine. When I was a kid, I worked on Broadway and I always wanted to transition into film and television. From a very young age, maybe I was only 13, managers and agents started telling me that in order to appear on TV or appear on magazine covers, I would have to get a nose job. I think people should be able to make their own decisions. If that’s something someone wants to do, then great; it’s your body and it’s your choice. But no one was going to choose that for me. And I didn’t want to do that.”
“I wanted to look myself in the face and have it be my face. And the reason I’m so grateful that I chose that, that I made that decision and was true to what was right for me, was because I moved to Los Angeles and ended up getting a role that, maybe if I had looked different, I wouldn’t have gotten the job,” she said.
13.
In 2015, Halle Berry said Yahoo Beauty“It’s pressure. When you see everyone around you doing it, you have those moments where you think, ‘To stay alive in this business, do I have to do the same thing?’ I won’t lie to you and tell you that those things don’t cross my mind, because there is always someone who is suggesting it to me. “You know, if you did a little bit of this and that, lifted this, then this would be a little bit better.” It’s almost like the crack that people try to give you. That’s what I feel. “I keep reminding myself that beauty really is what beauty is, and it’s not so much about my physical being.”
She continued: “Aging is natural, and that’s going to happen to all of us. I think about those women who I thought aged so beautifully, like Lena Horne. Even how Jane Fonda is aging; I don’t know what she’s done or not done, but she looks beautiful as she goes on her way. I just want to always look like me, even if it’s an older version of myself. I think when you do too much cosmetics, you become someone else in some way… I have Stop wanting to look like that previous decade. We have to stop coveting that. Let it go and embrace it now and you will be really fine. I guess it’s easy to say, but that’s the point.”
14.
In 2017, Debra Messing allegedly Elle.com that A walk through the clouds Director Alfonso Arau declared that he needed a rhinoplasty in front of everyone. She said: “I’d never been in a movie before. I was doing a love scene with Keanu Reeves. We started filming and the very famous director shouted, ‘Cut’ and said, ‘How quickly can we get a plastic surgeon in here? His nose is ruining my movie.'”
“It was a shock. I was so confident coming out of grad school with my master’s degree in acting. I had studied in London and was very well equipped with skills, and then walking on set and having that happen… it reduced me to a non-Hollywood nose,” she said.
“It took me years and years and years to finally recognize my differences and love what’s different about me, and come face to face with a truth within my industry, within our culture. There’s a very narrow definition of what a beautiful, vital, vibrant, interesting woman looks like, and that’s what we’re constantly fighting against. My whole career I’ve been swimming in that pond, where it’s like, ‘Oh no, you don’t look good,'” she concluded.
15.
In 2014, Sophia Loren said the hollywood reporter“I always tried not to listen to these people. They said my nose was too long and my mouth was too big. It didn’t hurt me at all because when I believe in something, it’s like war. It’s a battle. But even Carlo [Ponti, her husband] He said, ‘You know, the cameramen say your nose is too long.’ Maybe you have to touch it a little bit.'”
“And I said, ‘Listen, I don’t want to touch anything on my face because I like my face. If I have to change my nose, I’ll go back to Pozzuoli.’ At that time they made noses like the French ones with a little point at the end, they liked that. Can you imagine me with a nose like that?” she said.
16.
During a 2023 appearance at Your test on the blockK-drama star and the wonders Actor Park Seo-joon said, “I auditioned several times before making my debut, and I couldn’t pass them all. I was also often scolded at auditions. Back then I suffered from low self-esteem… It was because of my appearance. The standard of beauty was quite different back then; strong, sharp facial features were in fashion. So I hated the way my eyes looked. Many casting directors told me that I did plastic surgery. Some even liked, ‘What’s that face? What kind of world do you come from?'”
“As I was repeatedly told to get plastic surgery, I gradually lost my confidence. I kept asking myself, ‘Am I doing something wrong here? Maybe this path isn’t for me’. It was hard to keep pushing myself to try, going through all that. It wasn’t like I knew my future was going to be bright too. But I stuck it out and luckily everything worked out for me,” she said.
17.
In 2023, Coronation Street actor Dame Maureen Lipman told the telegraph“Al Parker was a film agent who told me I would have to have a nose job because I didn’t have a movie face. He sent me to a plastic surgeon on Harley Street, where I realized I could change my agent instead of my nose. In those days, everyone got the same nose, a little bit pushed back. I’m glad I didn’t have that because you can’t play character roles very well with a backward nose.”
“I’m too scared to have anything done to me, actually. I may not like what I see, but at least it’s pretty much what God gave me. I don’t want to look like someone pumped me up with a bicycle pump,” she added.
18.
In 2024, stage and screen actress Dame Sheila Hancock recalled what it was like not to conform to the beauty standards of the 1950s and told the bbc“I had acne, so I had bad skin. Someone saw me at Bromley Rep doing a modeling gig and they asked me to come and see them in the office. He sat me down under a lamp and said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to have plastic surgery because my nose is really funny, you know?’ So I didn’t fit the pattern of what was best to look like a woman in those days.”
19.
And finally, in 2023, Ruth Wilson told the Guardian“As an actress, everyone does [Botox and fillers]. Very little resistance. I haven’t done anything yet. But in my head I think, ‘Well, you decide not to do it and therefore potentially look older than your peers?’ Or do you just give up?'”
She continued: “Today we think, ‘Wow.’ But 200 years from now, you’ll look back and see images of women now saying, ‘What were they doing?’ ‘What is that? You’re blowing your face and lips off. However, it is a multi-billion dollar industry. And women are part of that industry, perpetuating this ’empowerment.'”