Celebrities Who Actually Addressed Plastic Surgery
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Vote up the celebrities who said it best when addressing their actual (or rumored) cosmetic surgery.
Cosmetic surgery is possibly the worst-kept secret in Hollywood. In an industry in which youth is the coin of the realm, many actors have sought out the knife to hold onto their looks, so they can remain profitable players in the movie business. While some have been coy about whether they've had procedures, several notable stars have been forthright in talking about what work they had done, and why.
There's something refreshing and admirable about such celebrity honesty. These admissions demonstrate the extent to which stars are just regular people, with their own insecurities and desires.
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- Barbara Walters Specials
- ABC
Longtime country music and film star Dolly Parton has been enchanting audiences for decades, and much of her charm and appeal stem from how forthright she has always been about her appearance, her taste, and her style.
In particular, she's refreshingly forthright not just about her reasons for having plastic surgery but also about the risks. In one remarkable interview, she shared advice for other celebrities considering getting cosmetic surgery and, in particular, her own thought process, stating she often gets it done:
[It's] because I am in show business. I am not a natural beauty. And I am on camera all the time… I don’t go to extremes with it. I just do little bits and pieces, just to try and keep things touched up, just tweaking.
Never afraid to poke fun at herself, Parton remarked on X (formerly Twitter): "I'm kinda like a little cartoon character & cartoon characters don’t get old. I'm animated, over-exaggerated & I will never change."
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- Alexandre V.D.A.
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC-BY-SA 4.0
Kim Novak rose to prominence in the 1950s, thanks to her appearance in melodramas such as Picnic and, even more notably, Alfred Hitchcock’s widely praised Vertigo. With her blond hair and statuesque beauty, she was in some ways the epitome of old Hollywood glamour. However, she raised some eyebrows and came under media scrutiny due to her changed appearance when she appeared at the 86th Academy Awards in 2014.
While some stars might have shied away from commenting publicly, Novak instead did the opposite, opening up about her reasons for pursuing the procedure - and her regrets:
You know when you get insecure and you think somebody can help you? I didn’t want a facelift or anything like that, so I went to a doctor and he put some fat injections in my face. That was the stupidest thing I could have done. First of all, I didn’t need it, because I think my face is too round anyway. But it filled out my cheeks so I looked different…
It’s exciting to dress up in gorgeous clothes and to feel sexy and to look sexy. It’s wonderful, but it’s a trap. You become satisfied with that being enough, then later in life, it isn’t enough. So many people, once they got older and were no longer looked at for their beauty, just fell apart.
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If there's one celebrity whose name was virtually synonymous with plastic surgery, it would be Joan Rivers. Known for her acid tongue and sharp sense of humor - as well as her ability to cut people to the quick regarding their fashion sense (or lack thereof) - she was open and honest about her numerous procedures and why she had them. There’s something refreshing about the honesty with which she dealt with the topic, considering how taboo it remains in certain circles.
In fact, Rivers even encouraged others to do it, if they thought it would make themselves feel better about their bodies and themselves:
We’re in a society where looks count… And all the beautiful women lie and say “I’ve done nothing” and that is so unfair. And I just want women to know it’s okay, do it.
Said it best?Bette Midler has had one of the most fascinating careers in Hollywood. She has attained significant success as both a singer and an actress, though for many people her most recognizable role will always be as Winifred Sanderson in the 1993 Halloween classic Hocus Pocus - and its 2022 sequel, Hocus Pocus 2.
She is also one of those performers who seems ageless, and she's not afraid of poking fun at herself on that topic. During a speech at the 2023 Costume Designers Guild Awards, for example, she quipped:
Time has a way of smoothing everything out. I’ve been at it for close to 60 years… and I do look fabulous, I know. I’ve had some tailoring done on my face.
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- Will & Grace
- NBC
Cher is one of those stars who can do it all. She has attained success as both an actress and a musician, and as her recent performance at the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade makes clear, she's still going strong well into her 70s. She's also unafraid to mince words when it comes to her life and practices - including plastic surgery.
In 2002, she responded to the vicious tabloids, which had made a feast of detailing her supposed excesses:
If I'd had as much plastic surgery as they [say], you know, like I've got ass implants and calf implants and cheek implants. I've had the same cheeks my entire life. No butt lifts. No ribs removed… If I want to put my t*ts on my back, it's nobody's business but my own.
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- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension
- 20th Century Fox
Jamie Lee Curtis is another example of Hollywood royalty, being the daughter of big-screen legends Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. However, she has more than earned her reputation as one of the industry’s most talented stars, having appeared in numerous genres, from slashers to comedies.
She’s also been quite blunt about the perils of plastic surgery, having gone through some procedures herself. “I did plastic surgery. I put Botox in my head,” Curtis remarked in an interview. “Does Botox make the big wrinkle go away? Yes. But then you look like a plastic figurine.”
In a more serious vein, she related how her procedures contributed to her addiction problems, especially when a cameraman told her she looked puffy:
I had a routine plastic surgery because of a cameraman. I naturally had puffy eyes. If you see photographs of me as a child, I look like I haven’t slept. I’ve just always been that person, and we were shooting a scene in a courtroom with that kind of high, nasty fluorescent light, and it came around to my coverage in the scene, and [the cameraman] said, “I’m not shooting her today. Her eyes are too puffy.” I was so mortified and so embarrassed and had just so much shame about it that after that movie, I went and had routine plastic surgery to remove the puffiness. They gave me Vicodin as a painkiller for something that wasn’t really painful.
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- The Commando
- Saban Films
Mickey Rourke has certainly had an interesting career. After getting his start as a boxer, he then moved into acting - before moving again into boxing.
The sport takes a tremendous toll on the body, and Rourke knows this better than most. In fact, he has been very open about discussing his changing appearance, much of which is due to a few botched cosmetic surgeries. In 2009, he put it bluntly:
Most of it was to mend the mess of my face because of the boxing, but I went to the wrong guy to put my face back together.
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Jennifer Lawrence is among the most talented and successful actresses of her generation. She’s capable of delivering stirring and powerful performances in everything from sprawling franchises like The Hunger Games to comedies like No Hard Feelings. Being a woman in Hollywood is never easy, but she seems to have adapted well to the pressures of the public spotlight.
She’s also been willing to stick up for herself and to shoot down unwarranted rumors about whether she had cosmetic surgery on her eyes. Responding to such gossip, she pointed out the brilliance of her makeup artist:
I also think it’s incredible what make-up can do because I work with Hung [Vanngo], who overlines the lip, and I call him a plastic surgeon, because everybody in the last few months since I’ve been working with him is convinced that I had eye surgery.
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Sylvester Stallone rose to international prominence thanks to his appearances in the hit boxing film franchise, beginning with 1976's Rocky, a role with which he remains synonymous. He also became one of the biggest action stars of the 1980s, thanks to his appearances in the Rambo franchise.
Unsurprisingly, he has put his body through a lot to prepare for such roles, and in fact his weight loss for Rocky caused one side of his face to sag, a legacy from his birth, when forceps damaged some of his facial nerves.
Stallone eventually had surgery to lift the left side of his face. In an interview with People, he pointed to the scar behind his left ear and said:
People see this scar and think I’ve had a facelift. What they don’t notice is that I don’t have a scar over here by my right ear. What do they think? That I could only afford to have half of it done?
In the same interview, he explained his reasons for getting the procedure done: “Why not do it? You have body work done on your car.”
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- Doctor Who
- BBC
Whether appearing in hit TV series such as Broadchurch and The Crown or in drama films such as The Favourite, Olivia Colman has managed to cast a spell uniquely her own, infusing each of her roles with depth and humanity.
Part of her appeal stems from her disarming honesty and earnestness, which is as true of her comments to the press as it is of her on-screen performances. Regarding her use of Botox, for example, she had this to say:
I have done Botox and I LOVED it [but] I've done it when I know there is a big gap [between roles]… I didn't tell my husband and then for about six months he kept saying, “Hello, Pretty!”
Fortunately, her husband Ed took it in stride when she told him the truth, and he even found it funny.
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- Grace and Frankie
- Netflix
Jane Fonda is the definition of Hollywood royalty. The daughter of famed actor Henry Fonda, she has established a venerable career for herself in the industry, most recently appearing as the uptight Grace Hanson in Grace and Frankie, which reunited her with her 9 to 5 costar Lily Tomlin (who plays the more relaxed Frankie Bergstein).
Like many stars her age, Fonda has had some cosmetic surgeries, and she isn’t afraid to talk about them. In fact, she has even expressed regret about having a facelift, even as she also had some cautionary words for those considering it:
I'm thinking we all know a lot of women who are wealthy who've had all kinds of facelifts and things like that and they look terrible. I had a facelift and I stopped because I don't want to look distorted. I'm not proud of the fact that I had [one]. Now, I don't know if I had it to do over if I would do it. But I did it. I admit it, and then I just say, okay, you can get addicted. Don't keep doing it. A lot of women… they're addicted to it.
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In addition to being a talented actress - with several awards, including an Oscar, under belt - Gwyneth Paltrow has also branched out into various business ventures. These days, she is almost as famous for her lifestyle company Goop and for her commentary about how she keeps herself looking beautiful.
In one notable interview, she got candid about her own regimen:
I use organic products, but I get lasers… It's what makes life interesting, finding the balance between cigarettes and tofu. I've probably tried everything. I would be scared to go under the knife, but you know, talk to me when I'm 50. I'll try anything. Except I won't do Botox again, because I looked crazy. I looked like Joan Rivers!
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