Entertainment
Jon Hamm, Scarlett Johansson, and 4 Other Actors Who's Sexiness Nearly Cost Them Work
Poor Scarlett Johansson. The actress, best known for 'Lost in Translation' and for her trademark curves, has lost out on roles... because she's just too goddamn good-looking. Not only was Johansson passed up for the part of Lisbeth Salander in 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' because audiences would, as director David Fincher said, "wait for her to take her clothes off" (the role was eventually played by Rooney Mara), but Johansson has said her sex appeal has proven to be too unsexy for several different films. "That's always an unfortunate thing to figure out," she's said. "For me, I would imagine casting someone, you would want to challenge yourself in some way." Read on to see five other celebrities who've been too ridiculously good-looking to get parts. [Image: Getty Images]
Jon Hamm
As Don Draper has famously said, fear stimulates the imagination. And we can’t imagine anything more frightening than a ‘Mad Men’ without Jon Hamm. But it almost happened — creator Matthew Weiner and pilot director Alan Taylor nearly passed up on Hamm because of his good looks. The first time we saw him with his haircut and his suit, all the women in the office kind of wilted and fainted when he walked by,” Taylor told ‘Vanity Fair.’ “He was this wonderful icon of maleness, and it took us almost that long to catch up to the fact that it was perfect to cast sort of the perfect male in this part, because what we were doing [in the show] was basically deconstructing that.” We can imagine that. [Image: Getty Images]
Jessica Biel
Back in 2009, ‘7th Heaven’ star Jessica Biel was put through hell by fans and the Internet after she told ‘Allure’ that her inability to get roles because of her good looks “really is a problem.” Said Biel, “I’m in there with everybody else, fighting for the good parts… I just want an opportunity. If you don’t like the audition, don’t hire me!” Still, Biel booked the part of Mrs. Justin Timberlake, so she’s really getting the last laugh. [Image: Getty Images]
Emmy Rossum
Some would call Rossum, well, shameless following a 2013 interview in which she said she was nearly skipped over for the role of Fiona in her Showtime series, ‘Shameless.’ “They didn’t want to see me; they wouldn’t even [let me] audition,” she told ‘Manhattan’ magazine. “They thought my image was too glamorous, that I couldn’t not be pretty.” [Image: Getty Images]
Megan Fox
The ‘Transformers’ and ‘Jennifer’s Body’ actress is well aware that she gets roles because her body, but rejects the notion that she’d be passed up for it. “It pisses me [off] when people fucking complain that I’m too beautiful to get a part. That’s bullshit,” Fox has said. “You wouldn’t be working if you weren’t attractive. Hollywood is the most superficial thing you could possibly be a part of. And if I weren’t attractive I wouldn’t be working at all.” And if she weren’t this honest, the former headliner — who was fired form the ‘Transformers’ franchise for dissing director Michael Bay — would still be working. [Image: Getty Images]
Brad Pitt
In 2009, director Kevin MacDonald told press he was glad Brad Pitt bowed out of ‘State of Play.’ After all, Pitt was just “too good-looking” to play the part of a journalist. “In a way, I was lucky it didn’t work out with Brad,” he said. “The relationship between the journalist and the politician was meant to be between somebody who feels inferior, who’s a bit of a schlump, who kind of can’t get a girlfriend, and somebody he’s looking up to and admires — his polished politician friend. That is not the dynamic of a Brad Pitt. He’s not looking up to anyone thinking: ‘Oh, I wish I could have your girlfriend.’” The actor who took up the role? Russell Crowe. Sorry, dude. [Image: Getty Images]
