In the dystopian world of 'Uglies,' appearance is everything – which is why star Joey King knew that now was the perfect time for the world to see this movie. King along with stars Brianne Tju, Chase Stokes, Keith Powers and Laverne Cox sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and open up about working on the film, beauty standards in Hollywood and more.
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00:00All my life, I wanted to be pretty.
00:05I thought it would change everything.
00:07In the dystopian world of Uglies, appearance is everything, which is why star Joey King
00:12knew that now was the perfect time for the world to see this movie.
00:15Uglies was a big part of my life growing up.
00:17I read it for the first time when I was 11, and that book series in particular was huge
00:25for me.
00:26It hit me at the perfect age to take with me into my teens.
00:29The Netflix film is based on the 2005 sci-fi novel of the same name by Scott Westerfeld.
00:35Set in a futuristic world, citizens undergo cosmetic surgery once they're 16 to turn
00:39pretty and join the rest of society.
00:41They tell you what to do, and that's it.
00:44Paris?
00:45What are you doing here?
00:47I was worried.
00:48Things are just different here.
00:50You'll get it when you're pretty.
00:52King, along with stars Breanne Chu, Chase Stokes, Keith Powers, and Laverne Cox sat
00:57down with The Hollywood Reporter and opened up about working on the film, beauty standards
01:01in Hollywood, and more.
01:03Have you ever felt, in your life personally, and this goes for you too Breanne, have you
01:07ever felt the pressure to act or look a certain way in society?
01:12Yeah.
01:13Absolutely.
01:14I don't know anyone who hasn't felt that pressure.
01:18Absolutely.
01:19It doesn't matter whether you're in the public eye or you're just going to your first
01:22day of school or whatever.
01:24We all have our insecurities, and I think that just comes with growing up.
01:28It's hard.
01:29What do you do with all that information?
01:30We live in the age of information with social media, and it's hard.
01:37No one has really given us a guidebook on how to navigate that, and so in life it's
01:40trial and error.
01:42Definitely felt the pressures to look a certain way.
01:44In terms of the way I look, I think, yeah, for sure.
01:47There's a thing about being legible.
01:49I grew up not feeling beautiful at all and longing to be beautiful in the same, similar
01:54way that Tally longs to be beautiful.
01:56I've always wanted to be pretty, and I thought it would change everything, and I certainly
01:59had that, and I do feel pretty today.
02:04I feel beautiful today.
02:06When asked about director McG's comments about contemporary society being obsessed
02:10with image, the cast had this to say.
02:12I think sometimes I even find myself caught up in it, I think just naturally, just the
02:19pressure we've been put under with social media and stuff, and I think, in order to
02:26get better, I think it's just, it's like, first comes like self-awareness, I think,
02:31just being, like, knowing who you are, and knowing that, also just knowing that what
02:37you see on social media is not real, oral teeth on television.
02:40This perception of such a falsified reality that social media and the world is currently
02:45in is so tough, and I can't imagine being 15, 16, and even I'm guilty of it, like,
02:51I'm 31 years old playing a late teenager on a TV show, and the expectation of looking
02:57physically in a certain way at that age, I remember watching Dawson's Creek, and One
03:02Tree Hill, and all of these classic shows, and I'm like, why don't I look like that?
03:06It's just not authentic.
03:08And with the film set in a dystopian world, the cast revealed what they enjoyed most about
03:12filming and dished on the gadgets they'd want to take back with them in real life.
03:16It was fun.
03:17Yeah.
03:18I mean, we don't fight in person at all, like, in real life, so, I mean, it was...
03:19I was cracking up the whole time.
03:20Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:21We would do a take, and then I'd, like, be on my back, or Keith would be on his back,
03:22and we'd just be laughing about it.
03:23It was cold.
03:24It was.
03:25And we didn't, we don't have a lot of scenes together.
03:26No.
03:27You know what I'm saying?
03:28So, it felt good to finally, like, work that day with each other, you know what I'm saying?
03:29Other than that, it's more in passing.
03:30Anytime you get to kind of throw down with a friend like that, it's a weird bond that
03:31you build.
03:42Is there one gadget that either of you would want to, like, bring into the real world?
03:47Yes.
03:48Um, besides the hoverboard, duh.
03:50Duh.
03:51But, like, that's obvious.
03:52I think the, I think the interface ring is kind of cool, like, but it's a little, I could
03:57see myself, I could see that being a problem.
03:58I could become too obsessed with it.
04:00Exactly.
04:01I mean, like, just, like, any text message, just, like, but, like, we're kind of there
04:05anyway.
04:06Maybe the interface ring.
04:07That's true.
04:08I don't have, like, the toothbrush pill, except that I can use it to, like, kind of black
04:14out and my body will do a workout for me, and I can wake up and, like, workout done.
04:19Uglies is now streaming on Netflix.
04:21This is The Hollywood Reporter News.