They don’t make ‘em like they used to, and by “them,” we mean character actors. A Steve Buscemi or Paul Giamatti could never find the same success if they were starting out today because they don’t have the face (or abs) required to sell tickets these days. Everyone in Hollywood now looks like they stepped out of a superhero poster because they probably did.
That becomes a problem when a movie needs an “ugly” person and talent agency rosters are just a forest of supermodels. The traditional solution is to slap a pair of glasses and a ponytail on a bonafide movie star and hope nobody notices, aka the She’s All That or Miss Congeniality strategy, depending on exactly how old you were in Y2K.
No matter how creative they get, though, you can’t just wipe the lipstick off a hot pig, as we learned when user LuinAelin asked r/AskReddit, “What’s the worst example of Hollywood trying to convince us someone beautiful is ugly?”