Hollywood’s old guard looks distinctive. Haven’t they always? Meryl. Al. Tom. Morgan. Matt. Denzel. Brad. Newer stars look more … familiar. We’re not saying millennial and Gen Z stars have had some work done (though many certainly have). But there is arguably a more generic quality to beauty nowadays. Call it Instagram face. Or, in a reference to AI’s rising influence on beauty standards, “slop face.”
It’s a trend I first noticed attending broadcast network parties a decade ago. The older actors at events hosted by CBS, NBC and Fox looked more unique. But at a party hosted by The CW, the network’s starlets were like a petite, size-zero army — all big Disney princess eyes, plumped lips and long, voluminous hair (despite all being on different shows).
Think about this: When was the last time you saw a star under 40 with less than perfect teeth? What about a bald spot or large nose? (Adam Driver, 42, is beyond the cutoff.) How about a lead actress in a movie with a BMI over 30? (Even the latest iteration of Bridget Jones — in last year’s Mad About the Boy — had Bridget all fit, climbing trees and hiking.) Or a shirtless leading actor without washboard abs? (Do I hear 8 percent body fat? Six percent? Sold — to the dehydrated dude who can only dream of bread.)
What happened?
The homogenization of Hollywood beauty standards is the result of decisions by the gatekeepers of stardom, as well as by stars themselves, who urge plastic surgeons, cosmetic dentists and dermatologists to achieve on-trend looks they hope will benefit or extend their careers. And, as with seemingly every modern problem, one suspects social media is at least partly to blame here. Pressure on talent to aesthetically conform used to arise quietly, behind the scenes, from agents, managers and others within the system. Now actors who are either brave or foolish enough to read online comments can get pushed to change their looks every time they peek at their phone; coerced to play Whac-A-Mole with any features that stand out (which are sometimes literal moles — Rachel McAdams has bravely kept hers, but heaven knows how many bumps on other famous mugs have been frozen and scraped off).
“There’s a lot of abuse of how I look … it’s made me shy away,” Saltburn actor Barry Keoghan, who has been dubbed a “hot rodent man,” recently confessed. “It’s made me really go inside myself, not want to attend places, not want to go outside.”
And that’s from an acclaimed Oscar nominee who has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past few years despite not looking like a matinee idol. One can only imagine how much toxicity and pressure a less successful star receives — particularly if they’re a woman, as guys have always been granted more leeway on the looks front.
Even objectively stunning stars get scrutinized over any element that’s a departure from the norm: Anya Taylor-Joy gets ridiculed for her widely spaced eyes. Mia Goth gets singled out for her barely-there eyebrows. Sydney Sweeney’s breasts have caused a raging debate (“Why Is the Discourse Around Sydney Sweeney’s Breasts So Unhinged?” asked Vogue, while a Slate headline insisted, “Sydney Sweeney’s Boobs Are Not That Big”).
As across-the-board sameness increases, anything distinct strikes us as even more, well, distinctive, and it seems many cannot resist pointing out when “one of these things is not like the other.”
Another possible culprit, more specific to Hollywood: the rise of virtual casting sessions, particularly since the pandemic. Actors putting themselves on tape or auditioning via Zoom have become the norm, particularly for early casting rounds. Super convenient for all involved, though there are typically also in-person sessions required to seal the deal, particularly for major roles.
But have we lost something by shifting so much of the casting process to virtual? There can be a magical sense of presence when an actor enters a room, and reducing a producer and director’s first impression to a flattened, boxed image cannot help but boost the value of a perfectly pleasing, symmetrical face at the expense of more intangible attributes.
It’s no wonder, then, that plastic surgery is getting more popular, according to the latest American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery study, with year-over-year growth seen since 2023. Patients are getting younger, too, with 74 percent of surgeons agreeing that “the average age of facelift patients is getting younger” (up 9 percent from the year before). According to Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Jason Diamond, celebrity patients, unsurprisingly, skew younger than the average (their procedure choices tend to be the same as non-famous patients, only with greater concern about scars being invisible on camera).
The result has been a new candor about plastic surgery — though often only once the work becomes so obvious that it is less awkward to fess up. Denise Richards has talked about her facelift, Megan Fox and Kendall Jenner have discussed their breast surgeries, and everyone from Courteney Cox to Kristin Davis to Simon Cowell has expressed regret over fillers. Those happy with their fillers, however, tend to stay plumped and quiet.
So where does that leave us? With that old trope — that beauty is in the eye of the beholder? That stars should embrace their flaws? (I can hear your guffaw.) That we should push casting directors to not be swayed by a conventionally attractive face? Best of luck with that. Sixty years ago, a famous study paired college students at a dance and found a partner’s physical attractiveness was “by far” the biggest determinant of how much a person was liked. Humans love hotness — even if we all agree that’s not particularly fair, or interesting.
This story appears in The Hollywood Reporter’s July 2026 issue “The New Face of Hollywood.” Click here to read more.
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