Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Today's soundtrack: Violent Femmes "Ugly" ::
Do you know who I feel bad for? This is going to sound strange, but I feel sorry for ugly actors. I'm not talking about Charlize Theron in Monster, either. They went and made her ugly for that role. And that show "Ugly Betty"? Yeah, they went and uglified that actress as well by giving her braces, bushying up her eyebrows and frizzing her hair. There's nothing wrong with a good or decent looking actor or actress portraying someone who is ugly or disgusting so long as the make-up department makes them that way.
No, what I'm referring to is... well, let me take you back to the film that first made me realize this. There was a movie made in 1946 called The Brute Man. It is about a handsome college student who gets exposed to some chemicals which does some stuff to his pituitary and other glands causing him to mutate into a hideous, well, brute of a man. This guy is now so hideously ugly that people run screaming from him. Well, actor Rondo Hatton who played the part of the deformed brute, ACTUALLY LOOKED THAT HORRIBLE. They did nothing to his appearance to make him so creepy that women would faint upon looking at him. I guess why I feel bad for actors in this position is because the whole film is based on and has people constantly referring to how ugly he is, so the actor has to not only hear daily about how bad he looks, but also gets to have it down on cinematic record that his appearance is disturbing.
It leads me to wonder how filmmakers even go about casting parts which specifically call for someone with an "off" appearance. Like the movie Heathers and the character of Martha Dunnstock, aka Martha Dumptruck. Do the producers put out the call for an overweight, unattractive girl? And if so, how does the agent sell the part part to their client? "Listen, Carrie, New World Pictures is casting a high school film called Heathers and there's a role for an ugly girl that I think you'd be perfect for!" or maybe "Carrie, finally part that plays to the strength of your obesity!" or even "Look, Carrie, this part only has one line and through the whole thing the other pretty characters talk about how gross you are but I think you could really shine!" but probably "Carrie, you're fat and it's a paycheck."
I suppose for some of these actors they use their "different" look as their very means of getting work. In other words, they cash in on being ugly. Take actor Richard Kiel, for example. He is one tall and fugly guy, but he knows how to use it. He is probably most famous for playing the James Bond villain, Jaws, but his career started long before that with roles on "The Monkees," "I Dream of Jeannie," and "The Twilight Zone" (The classic "To Serve Man" episode!), and even goes as recent as Happy Gilmore. Basically, Hollywood knows that if you need a 7 foot tall weird looking guy, you call Richard Kiel. Good for him.
I just want to say that I for one appreciate you actors with the odd appearance. I mean, the whole world isn't comprised solely of men and women who look like Tom Cruise and Angelina Jolie, so I find it refreshing to see people with more "realistic" or "everyday" looks. And yeah, there are people who are quite decidedly unpretty out there so why not depict them in the movies as something other than a serial strangler or prehistoric behemoth or someone treated as a mutated outcast? Help us Steve Buscemi, you're our only hope!
William (fuglord)
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