Pattinson, Cruise, and 8 Other Stars Who Weren't Afraid to Get Ugly

In Hollywood, good looks can take you far, but not always far enough. Many gorgeous actors have deglammed themselves onscreen in hopes that audiences — and maybe Oscar voters — will see them as more than just a pretty face. The latest star to hide his light under a basket? Robert Pattinson, who sports rotting teeth and a hacked-up buzzcut for his post-apocalyptic western The Rover (which opens in limited release today). “The one weird thing was the teeth,” Pattinson admits to Yahoo Movies about his new look. ”But I kind of liked the idea of it, because I went to school with people who didn’t brush their teeth, and they always ended up being weirdos.” Pattinson is far from the only looker who dared to be dumpy. Below is our catalog of homely star turns.

Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich (1999)

The Role: Lotte, the unhappy wife of a puppeteer who finds a way into John Malkovich’s brain
The Look: The sun-kissed stunner wore a frizzy mouse-brown wig (her idea) and had her skin splotched with makeup.
The Payoff: Coming off There’s Something About Mary, Diaz was Hollywood’s favorite daffy blonde. Her Golden Globe-nominated performance in Malkovich proved that she could play against type, giving her the opportunity to take on edgier films like Vanilla Sky and Gangs of New York.

Charlize Theron in Monster (2003)

The Role: Real-life serial killer Aileen Wournos
The Look: The statuesque beauty went all-in on her transformation, wearing fake teeth, contact lenses, airbrushed freckles, bleached eyebrows, and liquid latex to make her alabaster skin look like leather.
The Payoff: Theron’s performance floored critics, earned her a best actress Oscar, and changed her industry status from ex-model to A-list.

Emma Thompson in Nanny McPhee (2005)

The Role: The magical childcare worker of the title who tends to a widower’s brood
The Look: Thompson wore a prosthetic nose and ears, a unibrow, fake warts, a large set of false teeth, a wig, and a fat suit — all of which baffled her child co-stars when they first saw her. “One of the little ones said, ‘What have you done with Emma?’” Thompson told About.com. “I said, ‘I’ve had her killed.’ Then they knew it was me.”
The Payoff: Nanny McPhee was a phenomenon in the U.K., spawning a sequel (Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang) and reminding audiences that Thompson, for all her accolades, got her start in sketch comedy.

Jared Leto, Chapter 27 (2007)

The Role: Mark David Chapman, the unstable man who shot John Lennon
The Look: The My So-Called Life heartthrob gained a massive 67 pounds and a very bad haircut.
The Payoff: The controversial film was poorly reviewed and attended, but it did prove that Leto would go to great lengths for a role. In retrospect, Chapter 27 foreshadowed his Oscar-winning transformation into the deathly ill Rayon in last year’s Dallas Buyers Club.

Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder (2008)

The Role: Megalomaniac movie producer Les Grossman
The Look: Cruise wore a nose prosthetic, a bald cap, a hairy chest mat, and even prosthetic hands.
The Payoff: Cruise was still stuck in post-Oprah purgatory, and his barely recognizable Thunder cameo gave him some much-needed cool cred. The actor danced in character with Jennifer Lopez at the MTV Movie Awards, received a Golden Globe nomination, and began developing a Grossman spinoff movie — which is reportedly still on the table.

Matt Damon in The Informant! (2009)

The Role: Mark Whitacre, real-life Midwestern businessman turned bumbling FBI informant
The Look: Damon wore a fake wig, mustache, and dorky glasses and gained 30 pounds, a process he described as “very, very fun … I just basically ate everything I could see for a few months.”
The Payoff: Two years after his last Jason Bourne movie, Damon proved he could still pull off a dramatic character transformation — much like he’d done early in his career, when he lost 40 pounds to play a heroin-addicted war veteran in 1996’s Courage Under Fire.

Mariah Carey, Precious (2009)

The Role: Ms. Weiss, a frumpy, dedicated social worker in the searing drama about a troubled young woman
The Look: The woman who normally defines the word “diva” tied her breasts down and wore a limp wig, fake bags under her eyes, a prosthetic nose, and a mustache on her upper lip.
The Payoff: Critics thought that the notorious 2001 bomb Glitter had killed Carey’s chances of an acting career. Her impressively modest performance in Precious turned things around and led to a role in another acclaimed Lee Daniels drama, The Butler. 

Christian Bale in American Hustle (2013)

The Role: Irving Rosenfeld, a social-climbing ’70s con artist
The Look: Bale shaved his head and sported a gravity-defying comb-over using a wig and glue. He also gained an authentic 40-pound beer gut and slouched so badly he gave himself a herniated disc.
The Payoff: Not only was he nominated for an Oscar, but American Hustle proved that retiring the Batman cowl hadn’t hurt Bale’s movie-star status.

James Franco in Spring Breakers (2013)

The Role: Philosophical Florida gangster Alien in the raunchy comedy
The Look: Among the accessories: cornrows, gold teeth, and neck, face, and torso tats. “I can say this: As soon as the woman in Florida put [the cornrows] in, the character was alive,” Franco told MTV News.
The Payoff: In a film that starred three bikini-clad ex-child stars, Franco’s performance is the one that got all the attention. At a time when the public was growing weary of Franco’s experimental-artist pretentions, the actor managed to channel that weirdness into a performance that was accessible, funny, and sinister — one of the year’s iconic characters.

Photo credits: A24, © You Tube, © Everett Collection, © Warner Bros