VOA标准英语2010年-Hollywood Leans Toward More Natural Lo

Mention Hollywood, and most people think of glamour¹: beautiful women with smooth, flawless skin and perfectly² aligned³ white teeth, men with trim athletic⁴ bodies.

 But much of that look is artificial: breast implants⁵, Botox-treated faces, collagen-injected lips and other surgically-enhanced body parts. Many filmmakers and casting directors are looking for actors with a more natural look, but they say that has become quite a challenge.

Many actors believe enhancing their looks with cosmetic⁶ surgery will give them an advantage when they audition⁷ for film and TV roles, according to Tony Nation, president of Actors Connection, which helps young actors and models get noticed.

Courtesy Actors Connection
Actors Connection's Tony Nation says there's too much reliance on plastic surgery.

"There are more actors now entering the entertainment market than any other time in America, which is a wonderful thing because actors are being really prepared as far as artists," he says. "But there are more actors entering the mainstream⁸ than there are jobs. So it's a very, very competitive, tough market."

Nation does believe there is too much reliance on plastic surgery.

"It's almost like sort of social pressure," he  explains. "Now it's like everything is being done. So you see women in their teens and twenties having plastic surgery. I think it's just a really dangerous mindset."

Cathryn Marlowe started her acting⁹ career more than 10 years ago and has appeared on a number of TV shows. "I'm not a big advocate of plastic surgery, [but] I'm not against it," says the 32-year old, who has also started a second career as a makeup¹⁰ artist.

"I've known other actresses who had it," she says. "I had a friend who had a little bump on her nose. It bothered her and she had it fixed¹¹, and her self-esteem went up 200 percent once that was fixed."

However, Marlowe says, the fact that cosmetic surgery has become more available and affordable¹² doesn't mean actors have to change their unique natural look.

 

Actress Cathryn Marlowe, 32, believes actors should not change their unique natural look.

"I think with the plastic surgery, it's just gone so crazy that if you look at certain people, they don't look human anymore," she says. "And you need to look human. Sophia Loren had a great comment in an interview. When she first came to the U.S., they wanted her to have a nose job and she said to them, 'No,' she said, 'I am Italian. I have a Roman nose. I will look stupid with a little nose on my face.' Yet she's considered one of the great beauties of Hollywood of all times."

While many actors think plastic surgery will improve their chances of getting a part, Marlowe suggests it could actually hurt them.

"It actually distances the audience from you, because you don't look like they do," she says. "I think if you go to the excessiveness of plastic surgery, people don't relate to you. They look at you as if you're phony. I also think as an actor, you want to be able to play many parts, and if you have so much surgery done that you could only look a certain way, you're limiting the parts you're going to play."

"The puffy lips is the worst," says casting director Keith Wolfe. He doesn't like seeing actors whose skin is either too taut¹³ or swollen¹⁴ with filler as a result of the surgery.

"If an actress is getting older and you can tell by looking at her or him that they have had plastic surgery, then that takes away what people liked about that actor in the first place," he says. "If they can get the work done and walk into your casting office and you cannot tell by looking at them that they've had anything done, that's O.K."

Nor does Wolfe like when all the young actors showing up for an audition look the same.

"You don't want to fall into the cookie cutter syndrome," he says. "If you are an actress, you really don't need to go to a plastic surgeon and give a picture of a famous actor and say, 'I want to look like this.' That's not going to help them at all, because you have to start with your natural self and grow from that. You shouldn't ever try to copy someone else because you can never be that person."

After almost 20 years in the casting business, Wolfe says he knows what it takes to become a star. And it's not all about looks.

"I've had a lot of beautiful actresses coming into my office," he adds. "They are beautiful, but they are not prepared. They haven't learned the craft. So the first thing I tell an actor to do is learn your craft and be ready when you get the opportunity."

Actors Connection's Tony Nation agrees. He recommends that young actors take care of themselves and grow old gracefully¹⁵.

"I had a voice teacher who I used to study with," he says. "He always would say, 'You have the face you're born with before 40, and you have the face that you deserve after 40.' I apply that to actors. Take care of their body. Take care of this instrument, because your look, your face and everything you have - that is what you're constantly selling. So it's really important to take care of your body."

Nation says as more and more casting directors and filmmakers choose more natural looking talent, actors and actresses will become more cautious about having plastic surgery if their goal is to survive in the highly competitive business.

 

1 glamour   

n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住

参考例句：

• Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
• The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 aligned   

adj.对齐的，均衡的

参考例句：

• Make sure the shelf is aligned with the top of the cupboard.务必使搁架与橱柜顶端对齐。

4 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

5 implants   

n.（植入身体中的）移植物( implant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters. 激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Perhaps the most far-reaching project is an initiative called Living Implants From Engineering (LIFE). 也许最具深远意义的项目，是刚刚启动的建造活体移植工程 (LIFE)。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

6 cosmetic   

n.化妆品；adj.化妆用的；装门面的；装饰性的

参考例句：

• These changes are purely cosmetic.这些改变纯粹是装饰门面。
• Laughter is the best cosmetic,so grin and wear it!微笑是最好的化妆品，所以请尽情微笑吧！

7 audition   

n.(对志愿艺人等的)面试(指试读、试唱等)

参考例句：

• I'm going to the audition but I don't expect I'll get a part.我去试音，可并不指望会给我个角色演出。
• At first,they said he was too young,but later they called him for an audition.起初，他们说他太小，但后来他们叫他去试听。

8 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

9 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

10 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

11 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

12 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

13 taut   

adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的

参考例句：

• The bowstring is stretched taut.弓弦绷得很紧。
• Scarlett's taut nerves almost cracked as a sudden noise sounded in the underbrush near them. 思嘉紧张的神经几乎一下绷裂了，因为她听见附近灌木丛中突然冒出的一个声音。

14 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

15 gracefully   

ad.大大方方地；优美地

参考例句：

• She sank gracefully down onto a cushion at his feet. 她优雅地坐到他脚旁的垫子上。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line. 新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。