Forget filters and Botox: long may the refreshing return of real faces continue

Conversations speculating about which celebrity has had what work done are endemic on social media, with procedures like "deep plane facelift" and "upper blepharoplasty" entering common parlance. At the same time, anti-wrinkle injections like Botox have been completely normalised, with the procedure now the top non-surgical treatment in the world, with more than nine million people having had it in 2022.

As we become more and more conditioned to see a smooth visage as the norm (and by the same token, a wrinkled one as somehow 'ugly'), it is surprising, and rather wonderful, to see a growing vanguard of actresses ditching the Botox on the big screen.

Take the Hamnet star Jessie Buckley, for example, whose control over her expressive face has led to her becoming the toast of awards season, with the Golden Globe for Best Actress already in the bag and the Academy Award looming on the horizon. The 36-year-old’s refusal to have Botox (she has spoken about having lip filler in the past) ensured that her portrayal of a grieving mother was as powerful as it could be – the emotion is in the facial movement, the scrunch, the lines.

Jessie Buckley

Then there is 40-year-old Amanda Seyfried, who admitted to Vanity Fair that she had made several sacrifices for her role as the 18th-century founder of the Shakers religious movement in the upcoming The Testament of Ann Lee – including, notably, Botox. Part of director Mona Fastvold’s “no make-up” rule saw her ditching her anti-wrinkle injections for a year to ensure that she looked as historically realistic as possible.

Amanda Seyfried

Likewise, Kate Hudson, 46, also revealed recently that she stopped Botox ahead of her role in the 1980s-set Song Sung Blue. “[Stopping] the Botox was an easy choice. They didn’t have it in the 1980s,” she explained. “And you have to remember, I grew up around brothers, so vanity was never a big thing for me. As I get older, I embrace the wrinkles and the life experience of being a woman.”

It’s a similar story on the small screen, where actresses Clare Danes (46), Keira Knightley (40) and Carrie Coon (44) have all been singled out for their lined foreheads.
Danes in particular has become known for her ability to portray tormented, stressed characters in the midst of a breakdown, no doubt because of how expressive her face is. Case in point was the recent Netflix thriller The Beast in Me, for which she earned serious plaudits from critics.

Keira Knightley

Knightley's part in Black Doves sparked a conversation online, not least for her apparent lack of Botox. On Instagram, the make-up artist Jenny Rhodes Maclean even declared that after a decade of using it, Knightley’s appearance in the show had prompted her to quit anti-wrinkle injections for good. (Side note, the people doing the marketing for the show clearly didn’t get the memo, as the adverts showed a noticeably airbrushed Knightley).

Meanwhile Coon’s lack of “work” was even used as part of her storyline on The White Lotus, when she is the only one in the group of “blondes” (which included Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb) to have not had any aesthetic help. In fact, she’s even spoken out in the past about how her refusal to get Botox means she often gets cast in older roles.
Of course, not all actresses embraced Botox in the first place.

Recently, Kate Winslet made headlines for criticising young women for succumbing to society’s beauty ideals by trying various tweakments. “Do they know what they are putting in? The disregard for one’s health is terrifying. It bothers me now more than ever. It is f***ing chaos out there,” she told the Sunday Times.

It goes without saying, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any woman undergoing any cosmetic procedure that makes her happy. Yet it is refreshing to see a relaxing of what has become known as the “forever 35 face” trend. There’s an ostensible shift when you reach your mid-30s when the conversation suddenly shifts from wanting to have nice skin, to wanting to appear youthful.

Leslie Bibb and Carrie Coon in The White Lotus

Indeed, the experience of Coon’s character on The White Lotus is not dissimilar to that of many women, where it can feel like everyone is getting Botox but you. And while Botox has its place for those who want to use it, so too do treatments that are entirely to make your skin glow – not to make it appear younger.

So, will the flurry of real faces on the big screen prompt a full scale revolution against wrinkle relaxers? Probably not. But it’s still nice to be able to see a realistic portrayal of 30 and 40 something women again, so that we know that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a) ageing and b) our own faces. Long may it continue.