Actors Who Are Totally Unrecognizable Today
A new nose might seem like a good idea when you're trying to land more work in Hollywood, until no one recognizes you anymore. From plastic surgery gone wrong to drastic shifts in aesthetic, these actors are proof that even people with faces seen around the world can still fly under the radar.
Transcript
00:00A new nose might seem like a good idea when you're trying to land more work in Hollywood
00:04until no one recognizes you anymore.
00:07From plastic surgery gone wrong to drastic shifts in aesthetic, these actors are proof
00:11that even people with faces seen around the world can still fly under the radar.
00:15Where you first saw actor Ethan Suplee in the mid-1990s will depend a lot on how old
00:20you were at the time.
00:22If you were on the younger side, you were introduced to him in his recurring role as
00:25Frankie the Enforcer on Boy Meets World.
00:27If you had older tastes, then you likely first took notice of Suplee in his small but
00:31memorable roles in the Kevin Smith movies Mallrats and Chasing Amy.
00:35Either way, he was almost immediately a steady fixture in film and television, and has been
00:40ever since.
00:41After Suplee wrapped his four seasons as Randy on My Name is Earl, he decided to start focusing
00:45more on his health.
00:46He spent nearly two years riding bikes for the investment of a full-time job, spending
00:51upwards of 48 hours a week on two wheels.
00:54At his heaviest, Suplee had weighed 530 pounds, but his cycling had trimmed him down to only
00:599 percent body fat.
01:00Eventually, he started to lift weights and add muscle to his newly thin frame.
01:04As Suplee told Entertainment Weekly, his physical transformation was only highlighted when he
01:08started going out for roles.
01:10He recalled,
01:11"'So then when I started looking for work, I found that people were like, who are you?
01:14We don't know you.
01:15You're this new person.'"
01:16"'I've lost a lot of weight, and I am focusing now on retaining as much muscle as possible
01:22while I continue to lose weight.'"
01:25There is endless debate as to which of the many wrestlers-turned-actors have had the
01:28best screen careers, but there's no denying that Dwayne The Rock Johnson has been the
01:32most successful in that regard.
01:34He went from being the most electrifying man in sports entertainment to appearing in movies
01:39that have grossed over $12.5 billion at the worldwide box office.
01:43Even in the days when WWE was still his full-time job, it wasn't difficult to imagine an easy
01:48transition to acting, given his ability to enrapture a crowd both in and out of the ring.
01:53Though Johnson was already in great physical shape, it wasn't until he was a fair way into
01:57his career as an actor that he really started to put on an impressive amount of muscle.
02:02These days, just one of his biceps looks almost as big as his entire torso looked back in
02:06the Attitude era of his WWE years.
02:09Coupled with his decision to have a permanently shaved head, Johnson looks almost unrecognizable
02:13now when compared to his wrestling heyday and even the early years of his acting career.
02:18Of course, the minute he says even a few words in his iconic voice, it removes any doubt
02:22that he's still very much Dwayne The Rock Johnson.
02:25It's impossible not to talk about actors who have seen drastic physical changes over the
02:30years without bringing up Mickey Rourke.
02:32In the 1980s, Rourke was one of Hollywood's go-to actors when it needed someone who was
02:36traditionally handsome but with a slight bad-boy edge.
02:39Acting opposite Kim Basinger in the boundary-pushing erotic drama Nine and a Half Weeks helped
02:44launch him to a whole other level in 1986, one that he unfortunately struggled to maintain
02:49due to various issues in his personal life.
02:51Rourke was an amateur boxer before he was an actor, and decided to give that another
02:55shot in 1991.
02:57He reportedly made the decision after feeling like he had no respect for himself being an
03:01actor.
03:02Rourke proved extremely skilled in the ring, and actually went undefeated during his eight
03:05fights as a professional boxer between 1991 and 1994.
03:10But just because you win the match doesn't mean you didn't take a beating.
03:13Due to all the injuries to his face from his time as a boxer, Rourke needed facial reconstruction
03:17surgery to fix the damage.
03:19But as he told the Daily Mail,
03:20"...I went to the wrong guy to put my face back together."
03:23Subsequent plastic surgeries followed to try to repair the damage done by his boxing injuries
03:27and the botched surgery to correct them, leaving Rourke almost unrecognizable from his time
03:32as one of Hollywood's most promising leading men.
03:35Actor Jennifer Grey starred in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Dirty Dancing back-to-back in
03:391986 and 87, but seemed like she should've had a pick of whatever role she wanted.
03:44But despite being one of Hollywood's It girls at the time, Grey became frustrated that the
03:48offers weren't flooding in after Dirty Dancing, and she decided to get a nose job.
03:52In 1989, Grey underwent her first rhinoplasty, but quickly realized the downside to making
03:58such a significant change to her face.
04:00As she explained to the Mirror,
04:01"...I went into the operating room a celebrity and came out anonymous.
04:04It was the nose job from hell.
04:06I'll always be this once-famous actress nobody recognizes because of a nose job."
04:10"...In terms of my career, it was devastating."
04:15Even worse, the initial nose job didn't hold, and Grey eventually had to have another surgery
04:20to try and make things right, further changing how she looked.
04:23She might not have ever returned to Ferris Bueller and Dirty Dancing levels of acting
04:27success, but Grey did eventually make a comeback in a different venue.
04:30She performed in Season 11 of Dancing with the Stars, eventually being crowned that season's
04:35winner in November 2010.
04:36Johnny Depp
04:37While Johnny Depp's first screen credit was in the iconic A Nightmare on Elm Street, it
04:41was on TV's 21 Jump Street that he first achieved breakout success.
04:45It's hard to imagine the Johnny Depp we know now being a clean-cut character on a network
04:49television show and adorning the covers of teen magazines, but that's the exact persona
04:53most of the world first saw him adopt.
04:55The thing about Depp is that he's known for completely disappearing into his roles.
04:59Many of his characters look completely different from one another, and often quite different
05:03from Depp himself, but that doesn't change how different Depp looks now compared to when
05:07he first started acting.
05:08In addition to the normal effects of aging, Depp is better known today for a more relaxed
05:12look that includes unkempt hair and a somewhat scraggly goatee.
05:16And unless he's at an event that requires formal dress, he is most commonly seen wearing
05:2090s-era grunge attire like flannels, jeans, and knit hats.
05:24In other words, he's as opposite as he could possibly be from his 21 Jump Street character
05:28Tom Hansen, something that was played to comedic effect when Depp agreed to cameo as the character
05:33in the 2012-21 Jump Street film.
05:35The bracelets, the rings, the tight pants, it was just so that people would think I'm
05:43cool."
05:45After playing Laura Palmer's best friend on Twin Peaks and Wayne's ex-girlfriend in Wayne's
05:49World, Lara Flynn Boyle quickly became a rising star to watch in the early 1990s.
05:53She continued to balance both movie and film roles throughout the decade, though it was
05:57her role on legal drama The Practice that brought her the biggest critical acclaim of
06:01her career.
06:02Sadly, as was far too common among actresses of the era, Boyle was a frequent target of
06:06intense tabloid scrutiny.
06:08In particular, she was constantly dogged by rumors that she had an eating disorder, owing
06:12in part to her petite frame.
06:14As she got older, that tabloid scrutiny turned into assumptions that Boyle had gotten plastic
06:18surgery, with publications alleging various features of her face resembled those of a
06:22person who'd gone under the knife.
06:24Boyle, who has always tried to keep a fairly low profile off-screen, has never acknowledged
06:28getting any plastic surgeries, though that hasn't stopped article after article from
06:32stating that she has.
06:33Still, the truth of the matter is that Boyle does look very different today than she did
06:37when she was at her most prolific, whatever the reason might be.
06:41When Jonah Hill first rose to prominence in comedies like Superbad, Accepted, and Knocked
06:45Up, few could have predicted that he'd eventually be a multiple Oscar nominee who would work
06:49with filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and the Coen brothers.
06:53He's definitely had one of the more interesting and surprising careers of anyone from his
06:57generation of actors.
06:58On top of that, Hill has also probably gone through a more drastic physical change than
07:02any of them.
07:03While peers like Michael Cera, Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Justin Long all just looked
07:07like older versions of themselves as compared to their 2000s heyday, Hill has seen a much
07:11more noticeable evolution in his look.
07:14"...Jonah almost couldn't make it tonight because he had trouble finding a tuxedo that
07:17changes sizes every three hours."
07:20In addition to his frequent tendency to sport a full beard and mustache these days, Hill
07:24has also lost a fair amount of weight, gained muscle, and added tattoos to his leaner look.
07:28His hair is also rarely in the more bushy, afro-like form that we most often saw in his
07:33early years, with it now sometimes long past his shoulders and other times as short as
07:37a buzz cut.
07:38If it's been a while since you saw Jonah Hill on screen, we can almost guarantee he's going
07:42to look quite a bit different from the last time you saw him.
07:45It's tempting to point to the Twilight series as Kristen Stewart's big breakout, but that
07:49wouldn't fairly discount her noteworthy turns in major releases like Panic Room and Zathura,
07:54A Space Adventure, not to mention her roles in various indie movies throughout the 2000s.
07:59Stewart was far from a newcomer when she accepted the role of Bella Swan, which catapulted her
08:03to massive worldwide stardom.
08:04In the first phase of her career, up to and through the Twilight era, Stewart had a pretty
08:08standard all-American girl vibe to her look and fashion choices.
08:12But around the mid-2010s, likely due to being free of her Twilight obligations and the need
08:16to maintain the same basic look for an entire franchise, Stewart began to get a lot more
08:20creative and interesting in her fashion and style choices.
08:23Her previously long, straight hair mostly gave way to various shorter bobs, sometimes
08:28bordering on a buzz cut.
08:29She also tends to go blonde a lot more often than not.
08:31She has definitely come a long way since the Bella Swan days, with both her looks and her
08:36career seeming to belong to a completely different person than she used to be.
08:39To put it more accurately, she now has the confidence to be the real Kristen Stewart.
08:44Renee Zellweger was a consistent presence in film throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
08:49You can pick any number of roles as her most iconic, and there wouldn't be a wrong answer.
08:53From the titular Bridget Jones franchise, to Dorothy Boyd in Jerry Maguire, to her Oscar-nominated
08:58role as Roxy Hart in Chicago, to her Oscar-winning role as Ruby Thews in Cold Mountain, she built
09:03quite a filmography.
09:04She worked steadily until 2010, when she took a self-imposed hiatus after that year's My
09:09Own Love Song.
09:10When Zellweger started wading back into the limelight around 2014, various media outlets
09:14took note of what was seen as a change in her appearance.
09:17Naturally, the immediate assumption was plastic surgery, and Zellweger initially took all
09:21the speculation about her appearance and the presumed reasons why she must've felt compelled
09:26to go under the knife as a major blow to her ego.
09:28However, she eventually decided to see the bright side of all the scrutiny.
09:32Reflecting on that period a few years later, she told People magazine,
09:35I'm glad folks think I look different.
09:37I'm living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I'm thrilled that perhaps it shows."
09:41Zellweger has chosen to neither confirm nor deny that she had plastic surgery.
09:45She's instead content to let people know that, no matter what they think about her appearance
09:49or her choices, she's comfortable in her own skin, and living her best life.
09:53Making her film debut in 2012's The Watch, alongside some of the best-known names in
09:57comedy at the time, didn't exactly put then-18-year-old Erin Moriarty on the map.
10:02It would actually be on TV that the actor finally started earning significant attention,
10:06primarily as Audrey Hart in Season 1 of True Detective, Hope Schlattman on Jessica Jones,
10:11and Starlight, a.k.a. Annie January, in Amazon's The Boys.
10:15Despite only just hitting her 30s, Moriarty has already been plagued by accusations of
10:19having plastic surgery.
10:20After it became a lengthy topic of discussion on The Megyn Kelly Podcast in early 2024,
10:26Moriarty felt the need to address the rumors head-on.
10:28She initially took to Instagram to deny that she'd undergone any plastic surgery, and had
10:32harsh words for Kelly for helping to ignite the rumors to begin with.
10:36Not long thereafter, Moriarty decided to quit Instagram entirely over the whole ordeal.
10:40As for why she might look different than she did at the beginning of her career, or even
10:44just a few years ago, there's nothing to suggest that she isn't just aging, and looks a little
10:48different heading into her 30s than she did as a teenager and a 20-something.
10:52Part of what made the Harry Potter film franchise such a joy to watch is that most of the kids
10:56in the cast were played by actual kids, which not only lent to their believability in the
11:00first installment, but allowed them to grow alongside their characters as the series continued.
11:05This also meant that many of them changed dramatically as the movies went on, and some
11:09are borderline unrecognizable in the roles they've taken on since the series wrapped.
11:13That's to say nothing of how different they look today as compared to their years at Hogwarts.
11:17One of the Harry Potter cast members with the most shocking then-versus-now comparison
11:21is definitely Matthew Lewis, who played Neville Longbottom in all eight films.
11:25"...Why is it always me?"
11:27Lewis was 12 years old when the first movie was released, and 22 by the end, and he was
11:31already bordering on looking like two different people when you compare Sorcerer's Stone Neville
11:35to Deathly Hallows Part II Neville.
11:37But that's nothing compared to looking at pictures of Lewis now.
11:40Beyond just the expected grown-up features, Lewis barely even looks like he'd be related
11:44to his younger self.
11:45Even if you grew up watching the Harry Potter movies on constant repeat, don't be surprised
11:49if Matthew Lewis walked right past you on the street without you noticing.