I'm too depressed about my looks to go after screen acting.


I know you need to release tension into this, and deal with this, but I think I'm too ugly to be on screen. Most of my favorite actors though are not classic beauties. How do you accept your looks, get rid of this doubt and bad self image? It's not worth carrying it around anyways. I'm not going to insult them and name them but they are not Robert Redford type looks.

quote:

Originally posted by actor92:
I'm too depressed about my looks to go after screen acting.

I know you need to release tension into this, and deal with this, but I think I'm too ugly to be on screen. Most of my favorite actors though are not classic beauties. How do you accept your looks, get rid of this doubt and bad self image? It's not worth carrying it around anyways. I'm not going to insult them and name them but they are not Robert Redford type looks.

There are a LOT of ugly looking people making a very good living at screen acting. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, John C Reilly, Steve Buscemi, Drew Carey, etc. Looks mean nothing if you don't know how to act. Because no matter how you look, there's always gonna be at least a dozen other people that have your same look, and the one who knows how to act is gonna be the one who gets the job.

And you probably aren't as ugly as you think. A lot of being attractive has to do with how you think about yourself, and how you carry your body. Take it from me. When I was in high school, I had really bad acne, I hated the way I looked, people thought I was a dork, and I couldn't get a woman to save my life. Now... all I'm going to say is things are very different and I'll leave it at that. If you want, I'll even PM you one of my headshots. I'll bet you'd be surprised that I used to think I was ugly.


With that being said, you can't change how God made you. The geometry of your face is always gonna be the same. However, you can change how you think of yourself, and how you carry yourself. You can also work out, and improve how your body looks. Those things make a GIGANTIC difference.

I know! John C Reilly is one of my favorite actors in the WORLD. I don't consider him ugly thought, but I consider myself ugly, and in reality I'm really not it's my perception.
Did you know he has his own eye light, because his eye sockets are heavy set? I was fascinated and he was shooting in a the east village a while back and I was trying to see if I could watch it from across the street.

Good advice thank you Jon!

quote:

Originally posted by Jon_K:
Looks mean nothing if you don't know how to act.

Dear GOD if only that were true. The talented would work more. But sadly, you couldn't be further from the truth. Which is NOT to say that unattractive people don't work- of course they do and a hell of a lot. BUT the comment you made is just not accurate of Hollywood. Just ask Jessica Alba and others. I am suprised many are still naive enough to think it is based on ability. Again, I wish that were true.

If I said looks do not matter I would be lying about human nature, and they do matter, extremely. They are not the most important thing, but second or third most important. People judge people as in poor,average, great of the overall person based on beauty. It's a sad superficial world we live in, but humans are hard wired to love beauty because it makes them feel happier, safer, and all that. Beauty is like a connection to the "gods; in a philosophical point" because some feel inferior to a beautiful person, and beautiful people want to be near other beautiful people. That is why the illusion of Hollywood is like a Greek Mythology. It's all about image and stories of other lives to based other lives of the normal mortal.

However, if you fall in average range then looks don't matter as much beyond that. Megan Fox doesn't necessarily look better than Jessica Alba (some will think one looks better than the other), and they both look completely different (now Adriana Lima is worlds from them on beauty; she's a model though; she's paid to look great). Get yourself to average range and anybody can do that especially men, just get a really attractive body, white teeth, nice hair, clean skin (laser surgery if you have scars; make up). You're pretty much average then.

Cosmetic surgery is there too, if you have something really ugly about yourself that the majority will think as well (not being mean). However plastic surgery is only there to enhance you, not to create another you.

Anybody can be average (except the unlucky few).

However looks isn't going to stop you from being an actor, it is just going to limit you a lot. Roseanne Barr isn't exactly the most beautiful woman, but she was successful. Maybe it was because she was that ugly? Or maybe she was radiance of beauty but not necessarily beautiful. Lindsay Lohan is a beautiful woman, but she doesn't radiant it. Her beauty slowly vanishes and she is still younger than most Hollywood mega stars.

Just work with it, if all else fails. Beauty is all the eye of the beholder, but we as humans in majority can tell the difference between ugly and beauty. Love is what blind, and everyone else sees.

You clearly can't be that ugly if you care enough. Having a decent body puts in you worlds ahead of others. Want to know the truth behind beauty? It's radiance. It's health. It's high self esteem. It's loving yourself endlessly. It's vanity. It's a sick corruption of the mind to make you a fool of your body. It starts destroying what was once beautiful. The fine line of being beautiful and vanity is to love yourself while being down to earth.

Once you get those things you're really beautiful then. Beauty is about being the best you can be, you cannot be beautiful if you are really vain, mean, evil. It's about being about pure love, radiant it, then you will earn the light. Beauty=love.

That's why the world is after beauty, it's a metaphysical type thing.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again... It's all about COMMERCE.

Whether pretty or ugly, good or bad, it all boils down to an actor's ability to make money.

This is, and always has been, the reality of our business from the outset. And it will never change.


www.robertkim.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0453647/

quote:

Originally posted by miss stone:

quote:

Originally posted by Jon_K:
Looks mean nothing if you don't know how to act.

Dear GOD if only that were true. The talented would work more. But sadly, you couldn't be further from the truth. Which is NOT to say that unattractive people don't work- of course they do and a hell of a lot. BUT the comment you made is just not accurate of Hollywood. Just ask Jessica Alba and others. I am suprised many are still naive enough to think it is based on ability. Again, I wish that were true.

I didn't say that looks don't help, I just said they mean nothing if you don't have some sort of basic acting ability to back it up.

Jessica Alba is no Meryl Streep, but she's a decent actor. In fact, I'd say the work she did with her body in Sin City was pretty amazing.

I know several girls who looks as good (in my opinion) as Jessica Alba, but they will never be professional actors because they just don't how how to act. Jessica isn't doing academy award winning work, but she at least has the basics down.

La Yessica Alba should be at the top in her acting ability because she is at the highest place in career- she should have Meryl Streep talent. She's famous and rich! I would expect true talent screaming and oozing at me.

Talented people every where and she only has the basics down. If she was ugly then she might retired by now. She was born beautiful it's why she's partly famous.

Angelina Jolie has the full package- talent and looks. She deserves the fame and glory.

But I don't care if they are famous or not, it doesn't matter to my personal life which is the most important thing to me. I think Jessica Alba looks like a fun person.

quote:

Originally posted by Mystique:
Talented people every where and she only has the basics down. If she was ugly then she might retired by now. She was born beautiful it's why she's partly famous.

I would disagree that there are talented people everywhere. When I say "basics" I mean things like being present, establishing a connection with your scene partner, knowing how to create a relationship, knowing how to create a situation, etc etc. Those things are basic to acting, but they are still very difficult to do, and to be honest there aren't that many actors out there that can do em as well as Jessica.

quote:

Originally posted by Jon_K:

quote:

Originally posted by Mystique:
Talented people every where and she only has the basics down. If she was ugly then she might retired by now. She was born beautiful it's why she's partly famous.

I would disagree that there are talented people everywhere. When I say "basics" I mean things like being present, establishing a connection with your scene partner, knowing how to create a relationship, knowing how to create a situation, etc etc. Those things are basic to acting, but they are still very difficult to do, and to be honest there aren't that many actors out there that can do em as well as Jessica.

Hmm I beg to differ,moderate talent isn't hard to find, rare true talent is. Let's put it this way there's less roles than talented people. Directors can find talent in a heartbeat, what he wants is "it" factor.

quote:

Originally posted by actor92:
I'm too depressed about my looks to go after screen acting.

As another poster pointed out (though I'd quibble with their examples), there are lots of ugly people in acting. Not that I necessarily believe your own depressive self-evaluation...

Acting is about being. If you can bring a strong, felt reality to a part, people will want to watch you. No, you may not be on soaps and you may never get a lead part. But if you've really got that and really respect it, you'll work.

As for being beautiful, in LA at least, that qualifies you to be one more bartender, or hostess, or convention model. It's no more a guarantee of getting work than being a good character type.

I also have to second Jon_K's comments about how people think of themselves. I often think of a woman I knew at college who was, if anything, an annoying dork. Years later, without plastic surgery or any great physical change, she was, well, hot.

Coco Chanel, as it happens, was beautiful, but she was also petite and chestless (as was the great seductress Mata Hari). Yet she managed to snag a few men many society beauties had never managed to catch.

Mirabeau, one of the great figures of the French Revolution, had a huge head, bad skin and really wasn't a very nice man. He seduced a whole series of women, including, in one case, a friendly jailor's wife.

Attitude is huge. Start with that.