Beauty standards are not as constant as we’d like to think. Over time, some celebrities who are now considered amongst the most attractive human beings alive have been rejected from productions because their looks didn’t match the beauty ideals of some film producers. Considering how attractive some of the actors and actresses on this list are, it’s weird to believe that they were denied a role because they were considered “ugly” at some point—and yet, here we are.
Melissa Joan Hart
Melissa Joan Hart calls 1999’s Drive Me Crazy premiere with Britney Spears a body-shaming mess. She was leaving to shoot Scary Movie, then the phone rang: “Turn around, go back to your premiere. You’ve been fired from the movie.’ ” A fitting decided she “didn’t have big enough boobs for that part,” and Carmen Electra got it. Her lawyer said, “‘Because of your cover of Maxim magazine, you’re being fired from your show.’ ” Hart cried, got a dad hug, and later kept doing Sabrina, The Teenage Witch.
Bonnie Morgan
Imagine landing the role of Topanga Lawrence on Boy Meets World, then getting yanked. Bonnie Morgan says she was the first actress cast on the show, then fired before filming much because director David Trainer felt she wasn’t “pretty enough.” She told the story years later on the Pod Meets World podcast. She was around 12 and thought the role fit, so she folded in pieces of her own upbringing. Danielle Fishel stepped in and made TV history.
Kat Dennings
Kat Dennings heard she wasn’t “pretty enough” and was “fat” at 12. Yes, 12. She remembers asking how auditions went and getting those “cruel” replies. She kept going and now laughs at the nonsense. Hollywood feels “much softer, kinder” today. You have to admire a kid who simply refused to listen.
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson, 24 in 1993, almost lost Scully because execs wanted a “bombshell type, ideally someone like Pamela Anderson.” Chris Carter pushed back. “Even though Gillian’s beautiful, she wasn’t their idea of sexy.” You see where ignoring bad advice gets you. The X-Files became huge and your instincts matter.
Mindy Kaling
Comedian Mindy Kaling became an integral part of the hit TV show The Office. Not only did she play a main character in the series, but she also got a writing role on the show when she was just 24 years old. However, Kaling always dreamed of having her own show, but she quickly found out that network executives exist with an entirely different mindset than the rest of the world.
According to Kaling, a certain network passed on her show, The Mindy Project, because she was considered too unattractive to “play herself.” Thankfully, she says, that network that passed on her due to her looks is now out of business.
Samantha Morton
Most people came to be familiar with English actress Samantha Morton thanks to her role as Alpha in the latter seasons of The Walking Dead. Morton’s acting is undoubtedly one of the few gems remaining in the messy zombie drama, especially since the actress has more than enough experience playing nuanced roles in independent films.
Morton was the first choice that Terry Gilliam had in mind for the female lead in his 2005 fantasy film, The Brothers Grimm. Morton was denied the role by producer Harvey Weinstein, who thought that Morton was “too fat” for the part. In the end, Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey ended up playing Angelika in the film.
Andrew Garfield
Andrew Garfield’s acting career has certainly been challenging. Not only is he permanently stuck being the least popular of the live-action Spider-Men, but he has also been denied some roles in his early years for not being “attractive enough.”
One such role was Prince Caspian in Disney’s epic sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Garfield lost the role in favour of fellow English actor Ben Barnes. However, seeing as how Garfield would later star in both The Amazing Spider-Man and Hacksaw Ridge, it’s safe to say that he dodged a bullet by not appearing in the commercial flop that the Narnia series became.
Henry Cavill
It’s hard to believe that Superman would make the list of actors considered “too ugly” for a role, but here we are.
We all know that Henry Cavill is widely considered to be one of the most good-looking men alive right now — but that wasn’t always the case, according to the actor himself. Die-hard fans might know that Cavill struggled with his weight in his teens — a condition that might have something to do with his not-so-secret geekiness. However, it seems like Cavill didn’t shed all that weight in time for some of his earlier castings.
When Cavill was 21 years old, he auditioned for the role of James Bond, a character that he had always wanted to play. However, the director told him that he wasn’t lean enough for the part and even told him that he wasn’t taking the audition seriously.
In the end, the role went to Daniel Craig, who is currently still playing the character — well, at least he was until No Time To Die. Now, some fans are campaigning for Cavill to be picked as the next James Bond, and seeing how great he has been playing Geralt of Rivia and Superman, choosing him as the next Bond sounds like the best decision that the producers could make.
David Harbour
David Harbour — Sheriff Hopper of Stranger Things fame — hasn’t always been the fan-loved celebrity that he is right now. He struggled at the beginning of his to find roles that fit his imposing body type, a pursuit that eventually led him to land an audition for the role of Fred Dukes, aka Blob, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
In a bizarre twist of fate, Harbour was considered too fat for the role of Blob. Harbour had a private talk with Origins director Gavin Hood, who told him that the decision to pass on him was due to him being worried about the actor’s health. It’s safe to say that weight isn’t a limitation for Harbour anymore, as he’s now finally fulfilled his dream of being a superhero in the MCU’s Black Widow.
Jessica Chastain
Nowadays, Jessica Chastain is revered as one of the most influential female performers of this generation. In 2015, however, Chastain revealed that she struggled to find some roles in her early Hollywood days, mostly because of her hair. When she was starting to find work in Hollywood, most casting directors told Chastain that she should dye her hair blonde to increase her chances of landing a good role.
Luckily, Chastain ignored the negative comments, becoming one of the most recognizable redheads in Hollywood in the process. She has also been quick to point out that people only began calling her attractive once she became popular enough, and she took this opportunity to criticize Hollywood’s obsession with how their stars look.
If Jessica is considered “too ugly” for Hollywood, what chance do some of the other actors have?
Kate Beckinsale
It seems impossible to consider someone like Kate Beckinsale to be anywhere near “ugly.” The English actress is simply gorgeous, but apparently, director Michael Bay doesn’t agree with the general consensus of beauty that every human being on Earth has.
Maybe it has something to do with Bay’s predilection for all things bombastic, but he deemed Beckinsale “not hot enough” for starring in his flawed war epic, Pearl Harbor. We might be cheating with this entry a bit because Beckinsale did get the role in the end, but not without receiving some hurtful comments from some members of the movie’s production about the size of her chest and the colour of her hair.
Ryan Gosling
Much like Kate Beckinsale, it would be hard to think of anyone with a pulse who could say that Ryan Gosling is not an extremely attractive person. However, he is also a dedicated method actor—a talent that cost him his role in the Peter Jackson fantasy drama The Lovely Bones.
Apparently, Gosling had a different idea about how his character, Jack Salmon, should look. He gained some pounds, weighing 210lbs for the role. Jackson didn’t like Gosling’s idea, firing him on the spot and hiring Mark Wahlberg instead.
Of all the actors who were considered too “ugly” for roles, we would never have guessed that Ryan Gosling’s name would make the list.
Meryl Streep
World-renowned actress and winner of all the Oscars, Meryl Streep, is a living Hollywood legend and considered one of the most talented thespians in entertainment history. However, when she was just getting into the acting gig, it seemed like some producers didn’t believe she was as “graceful” as an actress should be.
None other than producer Dino De Laurentiis refused to cast Streep in his 1976 remake of King Kong. Streep overheard the producer talking with his son, apparently shocked that he would present him with such an “ugly woman” for the lead role. In the end, the part went to Jessica Lange in what would be her feature film debut.
Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet still can’t believe people once called her “fat” during Titanic’s 1997 fame explosion. While promoting her Lee Miller biopic on 60 Minutes, the Oscar winner broke down remembering the 1998 Golden Globes, when a red-carpet reporter told her she looked “a little melted and poured” into her dress and should’ve worn it “two sizes larger.” Rewatching the clip, Winslet shook her head: “It’s absolutely appalling.” At just 22, she endured constant fat-shaming from the press—even her acting teacher said she’d only land “fat girl parts.” Winslet later admitted, “I was never even fat. It made me think, ‘I’ll just show you—quietly.’”
Tiffany Haddish
Tiffany Haddish once had a sneaky audition hack: she’d “accidentally” leave her purse behind—with her phone secretly recording inside. Later, she’d listen in on the unfiltered feedback from casting directors. Spoiler: it wasn’t pretty. Comments ranged from “She is not as urban as I thought she would be” to “Her boobs aren’t big enough.” One even dismissed her with, “I really think we should just go with a white girl. This role should be changed to white.” Brutal, right? But instead of giving up, Haddish kept showing up—proof that sometimes resilience is the only comeback worth rehearsing.
Zoë Kravitz
Zoë Kravitz knows the sting of Hollywood rejection all too well. When she auditioned for The Dark Knight Rises, she was shut out for being “too urban.” Kravitz later clarified it likely came from a casting director or assistant, not Christopher Nolan, but the damage was done. “Being a woman of color and being an actor, and being told at that time that I wasn’t able to read because of the color of my skin, and the word ‘urban’ being thrown around like that, that was what was really hard about that moment,” she explained. A superhero franchise, but no heroics there.
Amy Adams
Amy Adams has played a beauty queen, a fairytale princess, and even a seductive con artist. Still, back in the early 2000s, producers of the Dr Vegas TV show didn’t think she was “sexy enough” to play the love interest to leading man Rob Lowe. Given that the medical drama only ran for one season, Adams obviously didn’t miss much. Plus, her six Academy Award nominations prove she moved on to bigger and better things.
Tom Hardy
The producers of the 2005 film Pride & Prejudice reportedly turned down Tom Hardy (yes, the very same Tom Hardy voted the UK’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2021) because he did not fit the look of what they thought women wanted to see in Mr Darcy. It’s hard to believe that anyone would turn down Tom Hardy for not being the ideal romantic lead. Fortunately, ladies (and gents) still got to see him rock a wig and breeches just a few years later in the Wuthering Heights TV series. It’s also where he met his beautiful wife, Charlotte Riley.
Lea Michele
Lea Michele definitely sticks out among the sea of actresses in Hollywood with blonde hair, blue eyes, and tiny button noses. But that’s not a bad thing in our books. That said, casting directors and producers always have a clear idea of what they want a character to look like, and Michele apparently didn’t fit the script.
The Glee star was told that she was “too Jewish” and not pretty enough for film and television. Her managers and agents even told her to get a nose job to fit the Hollywood beauty standards. Thankfully, Lea Michelle never gave in to the pressure, and her distinct features (and amazing talent) eventually helped her land the role of Rachel Berry.
Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell is one of the hottest names in Hollywood thanks to hits like Nobody Wants This, The Good Place, and, of course, Disney’s Frozen. She’s the perfect mix of sweet, pretty, and a little bit quirky. But clearly not everyone picked up on her award-winning combination. Bell was told early in her career that she wasn’t “pretty enough to play the pretty girl” but also not “quirky enough or weird enough to play the weird girl”. We now know she’s plenty of both. We mean that in the best way.
Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder was one of the most loved ‘it’ girls of the ’80s and ’90s. We could probably even call her the poster girl of that era. But before films like Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, or even Heathers, Ryder was actually told she would never make it in Hollywood as an actress.
During an interview with Josh Horowitz, the Stranger Things star opened up about being told by a casting director that she didn’t have the look to make it in the business. Thankfully, it wasn’t advice Winona took too seriously, and she’s still proving that producer wrong with her career.
Sarah Jessica Parker
So many women around the world came to know Sarah Jessica Parker as the funny, sexy, and insightful Carrie Bradshaw in HBO’s Sex and the City. But her journey to this iconic role was riddled with hurtful rejections.
Parker was called “unconventional” and reportedly deemed not pretty enough to play a leading lady by casting directors. Of course, SJP proved them wrong by landing the role of a lifetime, but even that didn’t come without its fair share of nasty jokes directed at her looks.
Mark Webber
Imagine being cast in a role, shooting the first pilot, but then being dropped because executives consider you “not handsome enough”. That’s exactly what happened to Mark Webber with his role as Grey McConnell in ABC’s Stumptown. Ouch.
The role was recast with actor Jake Johnson before the show aired to the public. Sure, the show only had one season, but the ratings are pretty solid. This one definitely stings a little.
James McAvoy
James McAvoy may have been beaten out by Matt Damon as People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2007, but we can safely say the Scottish actor is still a heartthrob without the title. So, it’s kinda hard to believe that anyone would call McAvoy not “good-looking enough”. But it seems he heard plenty of those remarks while in the running for the role of Wesley Gibson in the movie Wanted.
McAvoy said that he was initially rejected for the role because the studio wanted someone with conventional “Hollywood leading-man looks”. Not to mention all the times he missed out on parts because of his 5′ 7″ height.
Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates joked about Hollywood’s taste, telling the New York Times, “I’m not a stunning woman. I never was an ingenue…” She’d crushed the Frankie role on Broadway, yet Garry Marshall didn’t think viewers would buy her kissing a guy. You ever feel studios underestimate your charm? That’s their loss.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch was 34 in 2010 when BBC bosses questioned his sex appeal for Sherlock. They even said his nose was “entirely wrong.” Mark Gatiss joked he looked like “a sort of ginger weird person” until he stepped into 221B. Ever feel underestimated? Prove them wrong and own your moment.
Judi Dench
Judi Dench, about 30 in the 1960s, heard a director say, “Jolly nice meeting you but I’m sorry, you won’t ever make a film because your face is wrongly arranged.” Who decides your future? She won an Oscar in 1999 for Shakespeare in Love and proved talent beats outdated opinions.
Bella Ramsey
Bella Ramsey heard they “didn’t have the ‘Hollywood look’” at an early audition around age 12. They kept going, landed Game of Thrones in 2016, then The Last of Us. You let one comment stop you or keep pushing? Hollywood can be wrong. Your look matters less than your talent and persistence.
Wendi McLendon-Covey
Wendi McLendon-Covey joined the Office Ladies podcast with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey and told a story recently. She said, “I had just been fired off a movie,” then “the money guy decided I was not pretty enough to do the role. So I was put on a plane crying to go right back to L.A.” Fischer blurted, “Holy crap!” She skipped seven weeks in Michigan for five shoot days, got The Office offer the next day, and played Marie, Steve Carell’s hookup, in “Business Trip”.
Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver was 26 when she auditioned to play Skylar in Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting. The role later earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but she told The Telegraph it nearly slipped away after producer Harvey Weinstein claimed “nobody would want to f— her.” Driver says he even sent a sexist note to the film’s casting director.
“I remember feeling so devastated until I realized, ‘Hold on, just consider the source for a minute. That is an unutterable pig — why on earth are you worried about this f— saying that you are not sexy?’” Driver said.
Did we miss someone? Which other actors were considered too “ugly” for roles?
