As an actor, looking good does come with downsides – and Lowe knows which they are

Apr 7, 2014 19:21 GMT  ·  By
Too pretty for his own career: Rob Lowe says there’s a bias and a prejudice against good-looking people
   Too pretty for his own career: Rob Lowe says there’s a bias and a prejudice against good-looking people

Rob Lowe is 50 years old now but he’s still in the running for one of the most handsome men in showbiz. According to reports, he’s had some “maintenance work” done but, as fans know, he was always particularly good looking.

In fact, there was a point in his career when all he was known for was his good looks. Even today, Rob says in a new interview with the New York Times, to promote his latest book, “Love Life,” he feels like he’s being prejudiced against for being so handsome.

The interview is called “Rob Lowe on the Problems with Being Pretty” (for real) and reads like a “woe me, I’m pretty” piece.

For instance, the reporter asks the actor about an earlier statement he made on loving to be different, and how it felt to have had to “wait out [his] good looks to get good roles.”

“There’s this unbelievable bias and prejudice against quote-unquote good-looking people, that they can’t be in pain or they can’t have rough lives or be deep or interesting. They can’t be any of the things that you long to play as an actor. I’m getting to play those parts now and loving it. When I was a teen idol, I was so goddamn pretty I wouldn’t have taken myself seriously,” Lowe says.

So, when audiences at home realized that he was actually funny in his roles on “Parks and Red” and “Californication,” Lowe wasn’t really that surprised because he already knew of a “historical bias that good-looking people are not funny.”

We’ll say this: he does have a point about how outstandingly good-looking people are typecast in this industry, which usually means that audiences assume they’re one-directional, specifically because they’re only offered one type of roles.

So, the more you see that pretty actor or actress playing the pretty (and usually dumb) supporting guy or gal, the more you think that this is all the acting range said star has at his or her disposal.

Even so, Rob’s statement that he was and still is being prejudiced against or that his fans ever assumed he had no interesting story to tell, let alone that could be funny, seems a bit of an exaggeration. We get it, he’s handsome and that too comes with drawbacks (like everything else in life). We also get that he’s missed opportunities because he’s good looking.

But from that to saying it’s a difficult job to break into the industry if you’re handsome, which is what he’s basically saying, it’s a stretch.

Some years ago, Jessica Biel was telling a similar story to the media, lamenting that being so “pretty” was preventing her from getting meatier roles because industry people didn’t even want her to try out for them. We don’t see how Charlize Theron, or Angelina Jolie, or Scarlett Johansson or any other beautiful actress ever let her beauty stop her so, but perhaps like in Biel’s case, in Lowe’s too, the reason for the absence of good roles is another.