10 Gorgeous Actresses Who Became Famous for Their Roles as Plain Ladies

All ladies who dream of becoming actresses probably imagine themselves as beauties shining on the screen. Yet acting skills need to be much deeper and not limited to just the princess roles.

FunnyModo collected 10 charming actresses who became famous for their roles of plain ladies. We admire their beauty and talents of transformation.

The Big Bang Theory

Mayim Bialik woke up famous worldwide after joining the team of the mega popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Today we associate her precisely with the role of the plain but intelligent and peculiar girlfriend of Sheldon Cooper.

Curiously, in the series, Amy works as a neuroscientist, and actress Mayim Bialik actually has a PhD in neuroscience.

The Duff

The plot of the movie is quite trivial: another school story about those who are popular among their peers and those who are ignored in their youth due to an unremarkable appearance.

Mae Whitman truly got into the character of unpopular but smart schoolgirl Bianca, and this movie brought the actress wide popularity.

Game of Thrones

The role of the brave female knight Brienne of Tarth became the first serious work for British actress Gwendoline Christie. And although the actress is famous for her height (191 cm / 6′ 3″), her personality is very different from her character’s: Gwendoline is feminine and elegant and loves heels and bright makeup.

For the sake of her transformation into a strong and masculine character, Gwendoline had to cut off her long hair, train hard, and learn to ride a horse and fight with swords.

Clueless

Actress Brittany Murphy performed in this movie when she was 18 years old. It can be said with certainty that it was the role of the ugly duckling Tai Frasier — a friend and classmate of the main character played by Alicia Silverstone — that gave her a ticket to a great actor’s voyage.

Boys Don’t Cry

In her first big role, Hilary Swank not only played a plain character but transformed into a guy. In this drama about intolerance based on real events, Swank played a transsexual guy who doesn’t have a place in this world.

Hair cutting, a month with a tightened chest, and exhausting work on her voice is an incomplete list of what the actress had to go through to get her first Best Actress Academy Award.

Ugly Betty

The American TV series Ugly Betty, released in 2006, helped Latin American actress America Ferrera, who played the main part, to become famous.

According to the plot, Betty Suarez, who is ridiculously dressed and doesn’t look very attractive, gets a job in a fashion magazine. Thus begins the story of ugly Betty, the role for which this actress received the prestigious Emmy Award.

Nanny McPhee

In this magical movie about restless children only a sorceress can cope with, Emma Thompson was not only the leading actress but also a screenwriter.

It’s worth noting that the actress did remarkable work on the movie: it took 9 years for Emma to write the screenplay.

Wish Upon a Star

This comedy with the future star of Charmed came out in 1996 and was probably the first big success of Danielle Harris. The movie tells a fantastic story about how two sisters exchange their bodies: model student Hayley, performed by Harris, gets the body of her popular sister, Alexia, and vice versa.

The actress had to transform twice: first from the beauty she really is into a typical “mouse,” and then into a confident girl.

Modern Family

The sitcom Modern Family has been cheering us up for 8 seasons. In this time, actress Ariel Winter managed to turn from a little girl into a gorgeous 19-year-old lady. Yet we didn’t notice it on the screen because Ariel’s character is the unpopular know-it-all Alex who has no friends and cannot be called attractive.

Yet how much effort it must take from the stylists of the series to hide such beauty!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, directed by David Fincher, brought the actress wide popularity and the reputation of a new Hollywood star as well as an Academy Award nomination.

The pretty actress, whom many of her colleagues consider private, brilliantly managed to transform into the antisocial hackeress Lisbeth Salander.

Preview photo credit Warner Bros. Television/CLP