5 Women Who Were Told They Weren’t Pretty Enough At The Start Of Their Careers

3:00 pm, November 25th | by Laura Donovan

Ten years ago, I considered going into acting. Every Los Angeles native mulls it over at some point, and luckily I’ve never had to watch my weight, unlike almost all the women in Hollywood. That didn’t mean I had the looks to make it as a star though, and before I could send my headshots out, several people bluntly stated that I simply wasn’t pretty enough to thrive in that industry, so I didn’t even bother trying to get my name and face out there. Looking back, I wonder what could have been had I not listened to the noise. These five celebrities were told the same thing I was — that they weren’t aesthetically pleasing enough or lacked the physical attributes to be famous — and proved their critics wrong. Here are some women who didn’t let the negativity weigh them down or stop them from chasing their dreams.

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1.Nia Vardalos

It took a really awful experience for the Greek actress to write "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." The celebrity said reinvention has been a major part of her career, telling More magazine, "This agent I was once working with said, 'You are not fat enough to be a character actress, and you’re not pretty enough to be a leading lady. Plus, there are no Greek roles. So I can no longer represent you.'..I was like, don’t hold anything back. Speak your mind. Then she dropped me." Rather than give up, Vardalos decided to use her background to her benefit. Hence, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was born.

2.Lea Michele

The "Glee" bombshell hasn't always felt so comfortable with her looks. Last year, she told Harper's Bazaar she was once instructed to invest in plastic surgery: "How many managers told me, ‘Get a nose job. You’re not pretty enough’? But I proved them wrong."

3.Whitney Cummings

As we reported last week, Whitney Cummings took some brutal criticism of her appearance before making it big, "I remember my agent at ICM at the beginning of my career telling me that I wasn’t pretty enough, that I was always going to be a quirky sidekick. And he was an ogre of a man. He should have been carrying a torch. If he was in a bar, he couldn’t have come near me, and then he was deciding my fate."

4.Sarah Jessica Parker

The "Sex and the City" icon has been getting flak for her facial features for a while, and it's nothing new. Industry types advised her in her early days to do "[a]nything from as silly as plucking my eyebrows to getting my nose fixed. Nothing that stayed in my brain for very long."

5.Barbra Streisand

Though the singer was told to get rhinoplasty early in her career, she never went through with the procedure, as she was concerned it would hurt: "I was afraid of the pain. And how could I trust a doctor's aesthetic sense? How would I know he wouldn't take too much off?"

TAGS: barbra streisand | Lea Michele | sarah jessica parker

Anonymous

Tell us more about yourself.
http://www.facebook.com/shane.ladd.549 Shane Ladd

All 5 should have listened to good advice, and gotten jobs as motel housekeepers.
http://apostrophejones.com/ Dr. Gloves

They told me and Cagney and Bogie we wouldn’t make it either.
We wasn’t pretty boys, but really, we didn’t need to be, as it turned out.

Now, the youngsters like Dustin Hoffman, Hackman and the short guy with the nose…Cruise, are hitting it big and they ain’t exactly handsome.

It is tougher on dames in the picture business, no doubt, but plenty of swell tomatoes do just fine.
Anonymous

A horse was told it couldn’t act?
TheRoyalCourtJester

And they won’t be pretty at the end of their careers either.
Anonymous

Sarah Jessica Parker looks like a foot, and Barbara Streisand is even worse. The world would be better off without either of them.

The other three aren’t terrible.
Anonymous

I’m not a huge fan of either but the world would be better off without them? Just how twisted and bitter about life are you?
Anonymous

The word to be used is attractive. All these women were pretty, but I would say that Parker and Streisand are not attractive.
Karin

Not one of them are attractive.
http://twitter.com/LauraDonovanUA Laura Donovan

yeah really…
Anonymous

So Jewish women with Jewish noses (Sarah Jessica Parker, Lea Michelle, Barbara Streisand) were told by their most likely Jewish agents to butcher their faces for a homogenized, WASPish look. Are they actors or contestants in a beauty pageant? Cookie-cutter beauty only goes so far, but DIFFERENCE is noticed and remembered.
Tan

Yes! There’s nothing worse than the trend for looking the same; small nose, large eyes, full lips, long thick hair, no body hair etc. If anyone with a slighter larger nose went to a plastic surgery consult, without even asking the doc would suggest a nose job. Same goes for body; got a or b cups? Implants. What’s going to set us apart when we all look the same boring look? I admire women with distinctive features that are proud of them. And then nasty people snicker about them and wonder why they haven’t just gotten it ‘fixed’. How revolting, really.

Remember what happened to Jennifer whatshername (I seriously can’t remember her name) the girl from Dirty Dancing? She had a brilliant career and was v memorable and went and got herself a nose job. Her career was through. Why? She looked like every other moderately attractive actress in Hollywood! Before she was sexy and distinctive. She must regret that move every day. But it’s cruel mean spirited jealous people that try and bully and tease others into conforming to this boring plastic ‘Miss America’ mould.

If I had a distinctive feature I’d keep it for sure (I do but I couldn’t change it in any case; iris’ that change colour, which I can obviously not change nor would I want to!). I think Nia in the first picture is a very attractive lady.
Tan

I bet you’re a right oil painting!
http://twitter.com/CuriousArtemis Bridget

I loved Sarah Jessica’s character partly BECAUSE she was so “normal” looking. I could identify with her character. Same with Lea Michelle and the Greek Wedding girl. All are pretty in my opinion. But I also think all of my friends are pretty; I certainly don’t tell them to get nose jobs or lose weight or pluck their eyebrows. Why would I hold actors to different standards? I judge them on their talent, not their appearance. And I don’t judge them personally.

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