12 films in which the attempt to age actors with makeup looked ridiculous (14 photos)

Heavy use of makeup can be a film's best friend or its worst enemy. The risk of the latter arises especially acutely when makeup is used not for some fantastic purposes, for example, to turn an actor into some kind of fictional creature, but for more mundane purposes





Jennifer Connelly in the movie A Beautiful Mind (2001)



The aged protagonist of the film, played by Russell Crowe, looks quite realistic, but his on-screen wife, played by Jennifer Connelly (who won an Oscar for this role), turned out to be extremely unnatural.

Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie "J. Edgar" (2011)







DiCaprio, as always, played diligently, but Clint Eastwood’s film about the first director of the FBI clearly failed, and even that makeup...

Armie Hammer in the movie J. Edgar"



On social networks they write about such cases that in the humorous parody show Saturday Night Live, aged celebrities look better, although the application of makeup there has an obvious satirical nature.

Guy Pearce in the movie "Prometheus" (2012)



Make-up artists often forget that human aging extends to the eyes, affecting facial expressions. In this film, in close-ups, Guy Pearce does not look like an elderly man, but a middle-aged man covered with strange scars.

Orson Welles in Citizen Kane (1941)



The film turned out to be a breakthrough in many respects, but the make-up artists failed to realize extreme old age on the face of 25-year-old Orson Welles without it looking ridiculous.

Kristen Wiig in The Excellent Life of Walter Mitty (2013)



Returning to Saturday Night Live, it is worth noting that Kristen Wiig became famous with the help of this show. There, as we have already said, they apply makeup to make it funny, and not to make it look realistic. Perhaps the show's regular make-up artists were hired for this film.

Winona Ryder in the film Edward Scissorhands (1990)



Johnny Depp is very lucky that his character in this film does not age (even though he is initially covered with scars, which the make-up artists did a great job with), because this is how poor Winona was aged. To be fair, it must be said that turning a teenager into a grandmother is quite a task.

Carla Gugino in the movie Watchmen (2009)



This lighting of the face especially emphasizes the unnatural “old age” of the actress, who is clearly covered with artificial skin. By the way, all the other actors in this film look much better in make-up, and in general the work of the make-up artists was excellent.

Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III (1990)



How could you age a person so that he seemed younger than himself? Al Pacino is already 84 years old, we know how old he looks - he clearly isn't.

Julianne Moore in The Hours (2002)



Another film where great makeup, which turned Nicole Kidman into a completely different person, was combined with unsuccessful aging. In the case of Moore’s heroine, make-up artists again forgot that facial aging is not just a collection of wrinkles. It is significant that the film has 9 Oscar nominations, among which there is no “makeup and hairstyling” category.

Saoirse Ronan in On the Shore (2017)



Aging young people believably is not easy, as makeup artists are tasked with making sure the actors still look like themselves (otherwise it can confuse the viewer), although in reality aging can take a person far from their youthful appearance.

Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)



The further into the past we go, the more aged actors in films look like people in masks. Now Sarah Connor would have been made up much better. However, as we can see, in the 21st century the magic of old age is not always dealt with.