There is no such thing as growing old gracefully in Hollywood. the pressure to look perfect at every age is very real. Both men and women are finding that their jobs could be in jeopardy if they don’t maintain their looks.
That’s why a number of celebrities turn to plastic surgery, in hopes that they can still get steady work in an industry that is very unforgiving.
But, instead of getting the roles they’ve been dreaming of, these celebrities are at the forefront of entertainment news for their plastic surgery mistakes. There are even some famous people who haven’t gotten any great roles since their surgeries.
Let’s take a closer look at the famous faces whose careers suffered major downturns after getting extreme makeovers.
1/ Jennifer Grey
Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey stood out in the 1980s, because of her distinctive look and specially her adorable nose. She had a bigger nose than many of the other actresses in the 1980s, but she was still beautiful.
When she went under the knife in 1987, her career shrunk along with her nose. It was such a dramatic difference that even close friends didn’t recognize her.
Famously quoted for saying she went into surgery a ‘celebrity, and exited a nobody’.
She’s since made occasional appearances in a variety of movies and TV shows, the majority of which have been guest starring roles.
Needless to say, the nose job negatively affected her acting career. Many people say that it was the reason why she hasn’t really worked in Hollywood ever since.
2/ Tara Reid
Tara Reid got her big break in The Big Lebowski, which she parlayed into becoming a late ’90s-early 2000s cinema staple. With starring and supporting roles in American Pie (1999) and its sequels, as well as Josie and the Pussycats and Van Wilder.
Unfortunately for Reid, when she went under the knife in 2004 for breast implants and liposuction, it had a negative impact on her career as well as her self-esteem.
leaving her with rippled skin on her abdomen from the lipo and deformed nipples from her breast augmentation. Which caused her career to differ.
“My stomach became the most ripply, bulgy thing,” she told CBS News. “I had a hernia, this huge bump next to my belly button. As a result, I couldn’t wear a bikini. I lost a lot of work.”
Reid reportedly got her procedures reversed in 2006, but the damage to her career was already done.
3/ Mickey Rourke
Mickey Rourke took a break from acting to become a boxer in the 1990s. He won six out of six matches but paid a steep price with his once devastatingly handsome face.
He required surgery as his face became damaged due to all the injuries from boxing, but the outcome hurt his prospects in Hollywood.
Rourke finally got most of the bad work reversed, or at least minimized. And his career has since picked up, with roles in Sin City, Iron Man 2, The Expendables, and The Wrestler.
Still, Rourke isn’t done going under the knife: In October 2017, he underwent yet another nose job to correct prior work.
4/ Lil’ Kim
Lil’ Kim was once rap’s Queen Bee, going platinum and winning a Grammy for her “Lady Marmalade” verse. Unfortunately, the hip-hop powerhouse hasn’t had a hit since her fourth album, The Naked Truth.
While part of that could certainly be due to the changing nature of the music industry, it’s almost indisputable that part of the reason was due to her drastically different appearance.
The fierce rapper appears to have altered just about every part of her face, and her body. Over the years. she has had a breast lift, nose job, fillers, skin bleaching and much more.
She was once known for being sexy, but many of her fans have turned on her.
5/ Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan was one of the big time movie star known as “America’s Sweetheart”, but in 2003, she looked like a different person. Her face started looking noticeably different as a result of the plastic surgery that she’s had done.
That, combined with rumors surrounding the reason(s) for her divorce from actor Dennis Quaid, and taking on roles incongruent with her “girl next door” image, damaged her career.
While she’s only starred in a handful of Movies and TV Shows since, she has been able to direct the 2015 movie “Ithaca”, as well as executive produce the 2018 TV series “Picture Paris”, both projects in which she also worked as an actress.
6/ Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith is an actress that’s part of a family of actors, including mother Tippi Hedrin, sister Tracy Griffith, ex-husband Don Johnson and daughter Dakota Johnson.
Griffith’s career peaked in 1988 with her Oscar nomination for Working Girl.
However, after she started getting lip fillers and a face lift around 1995, her career started to suffer and her fans were horrified at the results of the work that was done by one Doctor.
After the nasty comments she received on social media, she was able to go to another Doctor to get the procedures removed.
She has continued to work on numerous movies and TV series not only as an actress but also as a film and TV producer.
7/ Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson will always be the King of Pop, but toward the end of his life, he was more notorious for his bizarre appearance than for his hits.
Jackson is believed to have undergone numerous plastic surgeries, including several rhinoplasties, as well as skin bleaching.
However, Jackson insisted, “I’ve had no plastic surgery on my face. Just my nose. It helped me breathe better so I can hit higher notes”
8/ Renee Zellweger
Renée is one of the world’s most famous, beloved actresses, someone who has been idolized and supported by her fans for over two decades, but the work that shed id on her face made her completely unrecognizable.
Not that it’s anyone’s business, but I did not make a decision to alter my face and have surgery on my eyes,” said Renée Zellweger in a 2016 op-ed she wrote for The Huffington Post.
It was her way of responding to the global media firestorm she ignited in 2014, when the Bridget Jones’s Diary star was photographed at an event looking completely different.
By the time Renée won her second Oscar in 2020, it was like going back in time. She looked exactly like her old self.
9/Lara Flynn Boyle
Actress Lara Flynn Boyle has not publicly commented on her plastic surgery, but it’s obvious that she’s had some work done.
She probably doesn’t want to talk about it because the procedures turned out so terribly. The surgery left Boyle’s face plump in all the wrong places.
She also got reconstructive procedures, and she looks like a totally different person.
Boyle hasn’t really been in the spotlight all that much since her days on Twin Peaks.
10/ Heidi Montag
The Hills star had not yet established a huge career when the series ended, but getting 10 plastic surgeries in a single day in 2010 did not help her extend her 15 minutes of fame.
Montag elected to undergo a brow lift, liposuction on her inner and outer thighs, fat injections in her cheekbones, scooping out her back, ear pinning, rhinoplasty, breast implants, and chin shaving.
And she reportedly regrets it all. She and her husband, Spencer Pratt, went broke following all that work.
Unfortunately, not even this helped to make the couple relevant celebrities again. In fact, they got even more criticism.
