Actors That Look Completely Unrecognizable Since Their First Movie Role

As unfortunate as it may be to verbalize, more often than not, acting is a looks-based profession. Square jaws, tight faces, plump lips and sizable forearms can be the crux of success in Hollywood. Sometimes, actors like Christian Bale, Gary Oldman or Tilda Swinton temporarily morph into the characters they play, wielding a chameleon-esque ability to transform their birth-given features beyond recognition. For other actors, real-life transformations can open them up to different roles, slowly and almost imperceptible to their fanbase. 

Oftentimes, such changes in appearance can be attributed to plastic surgery or performance-enhancing drugs; some end up proud of the results, while others feel the opposite. Other times, actors simply age, grow out of old styles, habits and hairlines. 

We're not here to judge, condemn or shame. With the ten actors below, however, seeing side-by-side comparisons of their earliest public appearances alongside how they look today, you could be forgiven for thinking they were two different people. Whether intentional or not, their appearances have changed their identities as performers, for better or worse.

Mickey Rourke's career didn't begin as an actor. While a teenager, Rourke made his way up the ranks of amateur boxing. In his final year of high school he began acting, and he was eventually accepted into the Actors Studio. He'd soon land small roles in flicks like Steven Spielberg's "1941" and Michael Cimino's infamous "Heaven's Gate," but it was around the mid-'80s — with Barry Levinson's "Diner," Francis Ford Coppola's "Rumble Fish," and most significantly, Adrian Lyne's "9 1/2 Weeks" — that the Schenectady-born scoundrel with the mischievous grin would become a star.

By the '90s, however, Rourke's bad reputation and duds like "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" and "White Sands" had caught up with him; having difficulty landing good roles, the "Johnny Handsome" leading man stunned many by returning to boxing. He actually had a pretty decent record, going undefeated in eight fights, boxing against opponents in Japan and Germany. But being a boxer and making a living off your physical appearance are about as contradictory as one can get; unsurprisingly, Rourke suffered many injuries that would require him to undergo several reconstructive surgeries, seemingly removing him even further from any chance of being a lead actor again. In fact, his physical changes in appearance would become the subject of tabloids for much of the late '90s and 2000s. 

Rourke eventually returned to the silver screen, and his much-transformed-visage was ideal for roles like hard-living, sliced-up Marv in the "Sin City" films and his Oscar-nominated turn as battered, broken Randy "The Ram" Robinson in "The Wrestler." While that newly-minted Oscar cred led to high-profile work in films like "Iron Man 2" and "The Expendables," however, Rourke's career has since plummeted again into a sinkhole of little-seen films with titles like "WarHunt" and head-scratching sightings on "The Masked Singer." 

Say what you want about Mickey Rourke, but the man has always chosen his own unique career path. Where his talents (and appearance) will take him next is anyone's guess. 

This blonde bombshell's successful TV career began with guest-starring roles in shows like "CHiPs," before she landed a main role on the soap opera "Dynasty." Playing Sammy Jo Carrington, Locklear quickly became a sex symbol and star, then followed it up with a high-profile role in "T.J. Hooker" opposite William Shatner. Her success continued into the 2000s as she became in-demand for breathing new life into fledgling series, doing so for "Spin City," "Melrose Place" and "Boston Legal."

During much of this time, however, she also made headlines with a succession of rock star paramours, including Bret Michaels, Tommy Lee and Richie Sambora. By 2008, Locklear's rock 'n' roll proclivities seemed to be threatening her career, as she became the subject of headlines for public mental health breakdowns, including a DUI and drug overdose. After time spent in a mental health facility, Locklear took a break from the limelight, and in recent years has been working her way back via a recurring role in the Tyler Perry series "Too Close to Home," and the 2021 Lifetime movie "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff: The Kristine Carlson Story." 

After that lengthy time away, her appearance in "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" in particular drew attention from fans who took notice of her much older, mature appearance. While initially expressing trepidation about returning to TV in such a big role, Locklear eventually gained the confidence she needed to tackle the role.

Long before his breakout role in 2009's "The Hangover," this funnyman was building his career via stand-up comedy, small roles on series like "Boston Common" (he played "Bobby" in five episodes) and a short-lived writing job at "Saturday Night Live." By the early 2000s, he began to gain traction on his career, launching his own offbeat VH1 program talk show entitled "Late World with Zach" and stealing scenes in the claustrophobic, paranoid David Twohy submarine thriller "Below." 

Fans may have a hard time spotting the North Carolina native in some of these early roles, as he hadn't quite established his signature beard yet. By the time his role in "The Hangover" hit, and he was gaining repeated viral fame via his Funny or Die webseries "Between Two Ferns," Zach's long hair, beard, and stocky body type were part of his signature look. In the years since, Galifianakis has rarely given fans a peek under the facial hair — with one notable exception being 2012's "The Campaign," where he went with a moustache.

Becoming a household name via his role as Troy Bolton in Disney's "High School Musical" trilogy, Efron began making a transition to grown-up-targeting feature films while still relatively young, with "17 Again" and 2007's "Hairspray" (his first true feature film) both marking significant hits. Although he can is still a welcomed presence in youth-oriented fare (he voiced the kid in "The Lorax"), films like "Me and Orson Welles," "Charlie St. Cloud" and "The Paperboy" have belied an eagerness to take on heftier dramatic work. 

As Efron's star as risen, however, he has been plagued by a streak of bad luck when it comes to his health. In 2008, Efron was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to remove his appendix; in and around 2018, Efron tore his ACL, dislocated his shoulder, broke his wrist, and threw out his back — all in the span of about 18 months. 

Most significantly, perhaps, is that during this time he also fell at home (running through his house in socks) and broke his jaw on the granite corner of a fountain; looking back years later, he would say he "almost died."

Much surgery would follow to repair a chin bone that was reportedly hanging off his face; Efron even had it wired shut for a time. In April 2021, Efron's fans began noticing, as so-called "Jaw-gate" yielded a series of memes and speculation he had undergone significant plastic surgery; others attributed it to the "Baywatch" movie for which he had significantly bulked up. The actor cleared up such rumors in 2022, explaining the reasoning for his changes in appearance.

"That 'Baywatch' look, I don't know if that's really attainable. There's just too little water in the skin," he said, admitting that diuretics, overtraining, lack of sleep and repetitive eating made the shoot difficult. "Like, it's fake; it looks CGI'd. And that required Lasix, powerful diuretics, to achieve. So I don't need to do that. I much prefer to have an extra, you know, 2 to 3 percent body fat."

For the most part, changes in Efron's body and face don't seem to have negatively impacted his career. In 2022, he starred in "Gold," "Firestarter" and "The Greatest Beer Run Ever."

Few celebrities have experienced as much of a physical and public transformation in as short a span as Miley Cyrus. The daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus got her start playing a fictional, Disney-friendly version of herself on the beloved tween series "Hannah Montana." But the end of that show proved to be just the beginning for Cyrus, who embarked on a personal journey that has been at various turns triumphant, head-scratching, rebellious and extremely influential. 

In 2013, a 21-year-old Cyrus released "We Can't Stop," sporting an all-new look with short, blonde hair. Similarities were drawn between Miley's new public persona and the Hannah Montana character (who performed in a blonde wig). Piercings, tattoos (at least one source claims she has 74 of them) and an embracing of drug culture became increasingly noticeable, and as Miley's star rose in the pop music industry with songs like "Wrecking Ball," so did public scrutiny of her behavior. 

By the time 2020 rolled around, Cyrus seemed like she had spent the past decade transforming into a wholly different person and performer. With the release of her seventh album and title track "Plastic Hearts," she seemed to acknowledge exactly that with lyrics like "I can be whoever you want me to be" and a newfound embracing of glam rock. 

Most recently, Miley Cyrus has been seen rocking longer, blonde hair, often messy, with makeup that harkens back to '80s fashion trends. But then again, since the time you began reading this article, don't be surprised if her look has changed yet again.