Althouse: The loss of a face.

February 10, 2015

The loss of a face.

Oh, no! Uma!

ADDED: It is so foolish to think this kind of work is good for an aging face. The moviemakers always have new talent flowing into the business. There are always more genuinely fresh, pretty, young faces. Why would anyone want to look at the unfresh faking of such a face? You were the young woman once, and you edged out older women in your time. Now, either withdraw gracefully, or find your way into roles that fit your place on the timeline of life. If you're not a good enough actress to claim those roles, that's a good sign that you got more than your share of roles because of your beauty when you were young. You should be grateful — grateful and graceful.

53 comments:

Troubled Voter said...: Too bad. She was beautiful before. But if it makes her happy, oh well.; 2/10/15, 1:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Yes, she is very beautiful.

And she is still pretty, but she just looks, I don't know, the same?

Nothing about her new look stands out. Like she is a clone in the crowd of female clones.; 2/10/15, 1:53 PM
Nonapod said...: Stuff like this reminds me how glad I am that I don't have a career that relies so heavily on my physical appearance. Imagine having a majority of your income being heavily dependent on how young and/or attractive you look.; 2/10/15, 1:54 PM
Sydney said...: Something like that happened to Darryl Hannah, too.; 2/10/15, 2:01 PM
Rob said...: Uma Thremember this, a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh, the fundamental things apply, as time goes by.; 2/10/15, 2:07 PM
traditionalguy said...: It looks like O-Ren Ishi sent surgeon with a Samurai Scalpel to get even with Uma.; 2/10/15, 2:16 PM
CStanley said...: Honestly in this case the differences (at least between those two photos) look more like makeup. I don't see structural changes and the relative lack of lines can be attributed to less eye makeup (less to settle in the cracks) and her different facial expression.; 2/10/15, 2:17 PM
chickelit said...: Uma's face didn't get her famous.

Just sayin'; 2/10/15, 2:21 PM
Julie C said...: Maybe she had fillers. They usually take a little while to settle in. Or so I've been told!; 2/10/15, 2:26 PM
Known Unknown said...: Letterman will have to do that joke again.; 2/10/15, 2:42 PM
Amexpat said...: I like the before photo better than the after.; 2/10/15, 2:48 PM
david7134 said...: My area of Louisiana has become a new Hollywood. As a result we know of things others don't, like the fact that Uma chews tobacco. That says more than a new face.

But on the face issue, I like the European actresses. They allow themselves to grow old and they look much better. Actually, some are more attractive than the young starlets. Why get rid of the older,better talent?; 2/10/15, 2:51 PM
Bob R said...: "Uma's face didn't get her famous.

Just sayin'"

It was her feet. Gonna have to watch Kill Bill tonight.; 2/10/15, 3:00 PM
LYNNDH said...: Look at the great actress - Maggie Smith. She often has the very BEST lines in Downton Abby. And Helen Mirren (SP?) has great roles too.; 2/10/15, 3:02 PM
Darcy said...: @CStanley - I agree. At first glance it does look like something was altered but I think the truth is the lack of makeup or the application of very natural looking makeup caused a drastically different appearance than "smoky eyes" makeup.; 2/10/15, 3:08 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Helen Mirren will always be a hottie.; 2/10/15, 3:11 PM
Bob Ellison said...: She and Meryl Streep.; 2/10/15, 3:18 PM
bwebster said...: Ack! Her 'before' look is very attractive; her 'after' look veers dangerously close to 'uncanny valley' territory.; 2/10/15, 3:27 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne aka Doug Emhoff's Pimp Hand said...: Wearing a face that she kept in a jar by the surgeon's door...; 2/10/15, 3:49 PM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: You are only commenting on the failures - Uma, Renee. You're not commenting on the successes.; 2/10/15, 3:55 PM
Anonymous said...: She recalls Joni Mitchell in the second picture for some reason. Maybe she can play her in the movie (35+ only) since JM was so unhappy with the idea of Taylor Swift getting near the role.; 2/10/15, 3:59 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Oh! I loved her face. It was not only beautiful but distinct. Hopefully the change is something temporary like makeup or Botox.; 2/10/15, 4:10 PM
Hagar said...: I hope it is just the magic of make-up.
Is Thurman "unconventional" enough to deliberately pull a stunt?; 2/10/15, 4:12 PM
Humperdink said...: Oh my. To me, the face on the right appears plastic (no pun intended). The face on the left looks vibrant.

JMHO, but then I'm old.; 2/10/15, 4:21 PM
MaxedOutMama said...: I liked the before much better than the "after". Of course she was smiling in the 2014 pic, but she looks great! Just great!

In the 2014 pic she exudes confidence and authority, and yes, extreme attractiveness. In the new pic she looks like she's auditioning for a role in a harem.; 2/10/15, 4:21 PM
Lydia said...: If you scroll way down the page at that link, you'll see two photos of her taken this January and February. She looks pretty much like her old self on January 16. Either something happened between the January 16th one and the February 9th one, or it's just the lack of bangs on February 9 that makes her look so different.; 2/10/15, 4:26 PM
Abdul Abulbul Amir said...: Gak! She looked better in the before pic.; 2/10/15, 4:53 PM
robother said...: Maybe Bruce Jenner could adopt her old face as part of his trans procedure and compete for acting roles; I don't see her succeeding on intellectual infringement claim, since she voluntarily surrendered the old Uma Thurman look and feel.; 2/10/15, 5:05 PM
MadisonMan said...: In all the before pictures from this year she is using eyeliner. Not last night. I wonder if that's part of the issue.; 2/10/15, 5:07 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Reminds me of this.; 2/10/15, 5:08 PM
RecChief said...: never thought she was a raving beauty, but there was something striking about her looks. Attractive, but I could never figure out why.

too bad, I wish she would have aged gracefully, but it's her face so in the end, it doesn't matter what I think.; 2/10/15, 5:29 PM
Big Mike said...: @Althouse, you wouldn't want to look like you're 29 again? What if you had Uma Thurmond's money and could easily afford it?; 2/10/15, 5:46 PM
William said...: Just recently I saw the movie Two Lives with Liv Ullmann. Liv has grown older and has not used plastic surgery to dodge the processes of time. She looks fine. She's a tad heavier, and her face has lots of lines and creases, but they make her look kindlier and more companionable. She has a wonderfully expressive face, and I'm glad she didn't wax it over with Botox........If, past a certain age, you try too hard to project sex appeal, what you're really projecting is your fatuity in the face of life's futility.......I myself have retained most of youthful good looks and sex appeal. I'm frequently mistaken for Justin Bieber. I weary of the attention. The parents are a particular problem. Well, with time, this too will pass.; 2/10/15, 6:31 PM
William said...: Two Lives is actually a pretty good movie. I thought it was melodramatic and contrived, but, at the end, there was a postscript saying it was based on actual events: Liv played a Norwegian woman who had a German lover during the Nazi occupation. She had a daughter with that man. The child was taken away from her by the Nazis and put in a German foundling home for racially correct Aryan children. After the war, Liv was imprisoned by the Norwegians for the crime of having a German lover. Later still, a young woman appeared at her home and claimed to be the daughter that had been taken from her. The girl was actually a Stasi agent who had been groomed to take her daughter's place and integrate into Norwegian society.....All these things actually happened. You can see all the bereavement and grief written on Liv's face. Try playing all these acts of betrayal with a smooth, waxen face like that of Jane Fonda. An actress is more than just the sum total of her tits and good looks.; 2/10/15, 6:44 PM
virgil xenophon said...: Wanna see someone who has aged fabulously au natural?
(as far as I can tell) Try 83 yr-old 60s Italian actress Monica Vitti. WOW!; 2/10/15, 6:49 PM
Saint Croix said...: When they call it plastic surgery they aren't kidding.; 2/10/15, 7:04 PM
Saint Croix said...: Linking to plastic surgery disasters is like linking to aborted babies. So rude!; 2/10/15, 7:05 PM
Francisco D said...: Her face has lost all character.

Almost as bad as Jennifer Grey's decision to look like a WASP.

It's very sad that these women are so focused on looking young and hot that they don't understand that mature women can be very hot.; 2/10/15, 7:17 PM
Saint Croix said...: It makes me think of abortion for a variety of reasons.

1. The corruption of medicine. Doctors used to heal the sick. Now look at what they do.

2. The corruption of journalism. What we call "newspapers" won't run photographs of aborted infants, or plastic surgery disasters.

3. The sexual repression and control. It's my body, it's my choice.

4. How oblivious we are to the sacred. Pregnancy is sacred. Sex should be sacred, and the human body. I think churches are right to bless marriages. Yes, you are right with God. Birth, aging, death, this are very fundamental and sacred concepts. Are you afraid to die?

5. We put abortion under the rubric of privacy. But at some point, pregnancy is very public. People notice. Imagine a co-worker who is six months pregnant. And the next day she is not. Should you say anything? And what would you say? We want to keep our abortions and our plastic surgeries private. But sometimes people can't help but notice. It's rude to say, "you got a new face." But it's weird not to say anything. We have a culture now that requires repression. They file it under "liberty" but we can't talk about it.; 2/10/15, 7:28 PM
Saint Croix said...: 6. Accidents.; 2/10/15, 7:30 PM
Saint Croix said...: 7. Have sex with me. I'm young! I can have a baby! Oh, wait, I don't want a baby. Abort the baby. Have sex with me. I'm young!

8. Plastic surgery would make a lot more sense if this was Logan's Run. We could make a movie about people who are 75, having plastic surgery because they are desperately trying to pass. I don't know if Hollywood would want to fund a movie about 75-year-old Logan, hobbling away on a cane. Would the kids pay to watch that?

9. There is no equality in the sex cult. Babies and old people are not what we have in mind in the sex cult.; 2/10/15, 7:53 PM
sonicfrog said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/10/15, 8:23 PM
Saint Croix said...: 10. The urge to create art is sublimated sexuality. Instead of creating babies, we want to create something else. I suppose repressing a sex urge and channelling it into art-creation can be healthy and normal. But I also see, in our public artists, an unhealthy state of mind. Hollywood is filled with stories of people who do all kinds of body control for a film role. But that's temporary control, diet and exercise. One might even say it's healthy control. But undergoing a surgery to permanently change your appearance? For a film role? That seems really unhealthy, a kind of madness. Imagine all the time and effort and strain that goes on, hidden, on a Hollywood film set, in order to create an illusion of normal.; 2/10/15, 8:25 PM
sonicfrog said...: There is a huge difference in the lighting between the two pictures. That's going to make a tremendous difference. Look at how there are no shadows around her face or hair, and you can still see hints of wrinkles.... Makes it look two dimensional. That said, she may have had some work done.

I hope not, because she looks great in the 2014 picture.; 2/10/15, 8:26 PM
Saint Croix said...: 11, Spinal Tap is cooler than David Letterman. And there are no 10s.; 2/10/15, 8:31 PM
chickelit said...: Bob R said...It was her feet. Gonna have to watch Kill Bill tonight.

I was talking about "Dangerous Liasons" you boob!

NSFW; 2/10/15, 8:36 PM
Saint Croix said...: The quest for the perfect is profoundly fucked up.; 2/10/15, 8:37 PM
n.n said...: We will be judged by our appearance in the afterlife, at judgment, in oblivion, or at the next screening.; 2/10/15, 9:40 PM
David said...: Bizarre and grotesque. A face with all the personality removed.; 2/10/15, 9:53 PM
MayBee said...: Her nose has been narrowed.

I think doctors talk patients into this because a broader nose can start to sag or look more bulbous. So she had her nose sculpted. And cheeks filled. The combination makes her look completely different.; 2/10/15, 11:02 PM
eddie willers said...: She looks more like Renee Zellweger than Renee Zellweger.; 2/11/15, 12:31 AM
JAORE said...: What is that Hollywood progression?
Who is Uma Thurman?
Get me Uma Thurman!
Get me a younger Uma Thurman.
Who is Uma Thurman?

Perhaps she reached stage 3. Great actresses, and actors, can move beyond. For others it's like child actors. At a certain point you are not what made you marketable anymore.; 2/11/15, 8:05 AM
Known Unknown said...: I've looked at other pics from that same event and I'm now on board with it mainly being a makeup change.

It's not Renee Zellweger territory.; 2/11/15, 10:15 AM