Overhyped Celebrity Transformations That Actually Fell Flat

In the weird and wild world of Hollywood and entertainment at large, image is everything. Stars sometimes find themselves having to go to extreme lengths to appear younger, fresher, and/or more attractive in an effort to preserve their marketability in an industry that tends to favor the next big thing over the tried and true performer. Even the master thespians who care far more about their art than their Q-rating can find themselves similarly going to extreme lengths to cultivate their appearances to fully inhabit the roles they play.

Whether it was done for performance or popularity's sake, a veritable bonanza of stars have undergone significant transformations over the years. Unfortunately, not every glow-up or extreme makeover has been met with the praise that its architects were clamoring for. Some celebrities, despite a whole lot of effort — and just as much hype — have seen their efforts land with a deafening thud in the court of public opinion. Here's our list of overhyped celebrity transformations that actually fell flat.

Back in the late 1990s, Jessica Simpson emerged from the ether to become a pop music sensation. The statuesque blonde's debut album, 1999's "Sweet Kisses," sold a reported 4 million copies worldwide while its lead single, "I Wanna Love You Forever," was on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a whopping 20 weeks, peaking at No. 3 in December of that year. From there, Simpson continued to have recording success while becoming a crossover star via her four-year marriage to 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey and the couple's popular MTV reality show, "Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica." Eventually, though, her pop star streak came to an end, and she was treated harshly in the media and by observers for her fluctuating weight.

Fast-forward to more recent years, and Simpson reportedly lost a stunning 100 pounds after quitting alcohol and going all-in on a healthy diet and exercise. However, some people have responded less than positively to her transformation, with some opining that she now looks like a completely different person. In late 2024, she hyped her return to the recording studio with an Instagram snap that left some fans scratching their heads. "WHO is that???" wrote one commenter, echoing the sentiment shared by others. "Another plastic surgery victim vying for attention," said another commenter. Meanwhile, Simpson has been forced to respond to rumors that she uses Ozempic, telling Bustle, "Oh Lord. I mean, it is not. It's willpower."

Like Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera was one of the blonde pop superstars to achieve meteoric success seemingly out of the gate during the late '90s. However, Aguilera had garnered attention as a young performer on Disney's "The All New Mickey Mouse Club." Moreover, her 1999 eponymous debut album was a sensation on a much larger scale, selling a reported 14,000,000 copies worldwide, while its lead single, "Genie In a Bottle," became her first of five career No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. After releasing a string of highly successful albums, though, Aguilera has seen her star dim somewhat in recent years despite continued critical acclaim. And, like Simpson, she has dealt with the media fixating on her weight and appearance.

As such, one might have expected an overwhelmingly positive response to her 2020s glow-up, as the pop icon has returned to the spotlight with a revamped look and a toned frame. Instead, she was met with headlines like "Christina Aguilera looks unrecognizable" and hit with plastic surgery and Ozempic rumors (to go along with the other rumors surrounding her personal life). "Eyes already looking sunk in, and it's definitely giving late stages of Ozempic," wrote one X user in 2025. "I wish she never chose to go that route, but for her sake, I hope it was worth it."

Actor Jared Leto is known for throwing himself into his roles and going full-on method in order to bring characters to life. On the set of 2016's "Suicide Squad," for example, Leto reportedly gifted his costar, Margot Robbie, a live rat, in keeping with the sort of chaos his character, the Joker, is known for fostering in the world of DC Comics. He also lost 40 pounds and shaved off his eyebrows for 2013's "Dallas Buyers Club." So, it should come as no surprise that he went all-in on his transformation once again for 2022's "Morbius," in which he played Marvel's titular living vampire.

In an effort to truly embody Morbius, Leto first shed weight and reportedly used crutches and a wheelchair between takes to play the scientist Morbius, who was stricken by a rare blood disease. Then, he bulked up by adding nearly 70 pounds to his frame in order to play the super-powered vampire version of the character. None of these efforts did much for the film's critical or commercial performance, though, as it grossed a relatively modest $167 million at the worldwide box office and earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of 15%. Meanwhile, the film and Leto's performance became fodder for internet memes. Still, one can't help but be impressed by Leto's perpetual penchant for transformation.

When Zac Efron broke out as an actor in Disney Channel's 2006 hit "High School Musical," he looked the part of the character he was playing — a high school basketball player who discovers a new passion for singing. As his career evolved and he became a bona fide leading man in Hollywood, so too did his look. By the time he starred in the 2017 cinematic adaptation of "Baywatch," Efron had evolved from a mop-topped pretty boy to a muscle-bound beefcake. Then, in 2023's "The Iron Claw," he convincingly played real-life professional wrestler Kevin Von Erich, earning acclaim for his acting and impressive physique.

However, there's a contingent of fans and observers who feel Efron has actually gone too far in transforming himself into the veritable hulk he has become. "Watching 'Iron Claw' rn. Zac Efron took the PUREST steroids in human history for this role," read one 2024 X post about the actor's appearance. Wrote another poster, "He made his body look weird." Some have also criticized a perceived change in the look of his face, noting the increased size of his jawline, perhaps not realizing that he was actually recovering from a shattered jaw. For his part, though, Efron is ignoring the haters, telling Men's Health in 2022, "If I valued what other people thought of me to the extent that they may think I do ... I definitely wouldn't be able to do this work."

As much or more than any music artist over the last half-century or so, Madonna has shown an incredible ability to adapt, evolve, and reinvent herself. Like David Bowie before her, the iconic pop star — who was recognized in 2023 as the greatest-selling female performer of all time by Guinness World Records, with an estimated 400 million career album sales — has managed to roll out new iterations of her musical persona decade after decade. However, her more recent evolutions haven't been met with the kind of acclaim she is used to receiving, particularly from the standpoint of her physical appearance.

NPR host Julia Summers described Madonna's face as seen at the 2023 Grammy Awards as "virtually unlined and glowing, framed by barely-there brows and pillowy lips," as the fan backlash to her changing appearance as addressed on "All Things Considered." Rumblings of plastic surgery abounded following the appearance, and many weren't digging the Material Girl's new look. Madonna subsequently fired back at her critics on social media and society's treatment of women "past the age of 45," posting (via The Guardian), "Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny that permeates the world we live in." Meanwhile, her spicy photos continue to turn heads.

Make no mistake — Anne Hathaway is an A-list actress through and through. After breaking out in the low-stakes 2001 coming-of-age comedy "The Princess Diaries," she quickly rose to the stratosphere of master thespians with heralded dramatic turns in films like 2005's "Brokeback Mountain," 2008's "Rachel Getting Married," and many others, while still showing the versatility to turn on her rom-com charm. However, her performance as Fantine in Tom Hooper's lauded 2012 cinematic adaptation of the musical "Les Misérables" will likely go down as the performance of her career.

To fully embody one of literature and the stage's most tragic characters, Hathaway underwent a physical transformation the likes of which has rarely been seen in celluloid, becoming a frail and sickly figure in an effort to capably relay Fantine's tale of suffering. She may have gone a bit too far, though, as she actually made herself ill in the process. "I'd lost an unhealthy amount of weight in two weeks," Hathaway told People, claiming she lost 25 pounds over that short span. "I didn't know anything about nutrition. I taxed my body, and my brain bore the brunt of it for a while." The transformation turned some viewers off, too. "Glorifying extreme starvation for a gold statue isn't 'dedication,' it's a dangerous Hollywood obsession that feeds toxic body standards," wrote one X user of her appearance in the film.

As with some of the other actors on this list, Johnny Depp has shown a penchant for disappearing into the characters he plays over the course of his decades-long career. Even as those characters have tended to be offbeat and quirky with a touch of darkness, it's nonetheless hard to fathom that the same person played Hunter S. Thompson, Edward Scissorhands, Willy Wonka, and Captain Jack Sparrow. And while he has endured his share of controversy over the years, flowers have always been offered for his on-screen metamorphoses. The one exception to that trend would have to be his performance as Grindelwald in 2016's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" (he also appeared in the film's first sequel, before being replaced by Mads Mikkelsen for the third installment).

Depp felt like an out-of-left-field casting if ever there was one, and his bleached, messy hair and contact lenses gave him a look that may have been too weird and modern for a period piece set in the Wizarding World. "I don't have a problem with his acting, just his appearance. His current look makes him look like some kind of rockstar or something, not at all fitting for the 1920's-1930's," wrote one Redditor in 2019. "I don't mind him in other roles. I just really feel like having Johnny Depp was only cast to make more people watch these movies," opined another Redditor.

While it didn't start out that way, the NBC reality series "The Biggest Loser" came to be known as one of the more controversial shows in the history of the television subgenre. The weight loss competition veered hard into the realm of body dysmorphia and unhealthy fitness methods and goals, and according to some, its contestants were being exploited and even put in dangerous situations for the sake of TV ratings. "They're taking people who have been inactive and are not in good shape and boom, automatically subjecting them to this stress," Carol Wolin-Riklin, then-bariatric nutrition coordinator for the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, told LiveScience in 2010. "Things are going to happen." And perhaps no person exemplified the controversy like Season 15 winner Rachel Frederickson.

At the start of her season, Frederickson weighed in at 260 pounds; By the finale, she had dropped all the way down to 105 pounds. When she emerged from the curtain for the final weigh-in, "Biggest Loser" trainers Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper, who hadn't trained Frederickson (she worked with trainer Dolvett Quince) were visibly shaken by her appearance, as were many of the viewers who followed her journey. Michaels later claimed that Frederickson's dramatic transformation served as a catalyst for her quitting the show.

In the 2020s, actor Chris Pratt is firmly entrenched as a Hollywood leading man and integral part of the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which he plays Star-Lord/Peter Quill in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" series. Roll the calendar back a decade or so, however, and his situation was entirely different. From 2009 to 2015, Pratt played the lovable idiot/schlub, Andy Dwyer, on the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation" in what was a believable portrayal thanks to his dadbod physique and everyman charm. To make the jump from small-screen support status to that of a blockbuster star, Pratt had to completely transform his body, getting lean and shredded to the point that he looked like an action figure.

While it's difficult to argue with the results in terms of his spot in the Tinseltown hierarchy, some fans felt like Pratt lost some of his charm in the process. Fan commentary on his body changing reached the point where Pratt addressed it via Instagram in 2017, writing, "So many people have said I look too thin ... Some have gone as far as to say I look 'skeletal.' Well, just because I am a male doesn't mean I'm impervious to your whispers. Body shaming hurts." Meanwhile, Pratt's political leanings have further contributed to his changing image, making him "the internet's least favorite Chris," per Vox.

Speaking of Marvel Chrises, Chris Evans may just be the leader of the superpowered pack, having ridden his years-long role as Steve Rogers/Captain America from the middle tier of movie actors in Hollywood to that rarefied air where he can walk into just about any household in the world and someone will know his name. Along the way, he went from appearing in box office clunkers like 2001's "Not Another Teen Movie" and 2003's "The Perfect Score" to commanding a reported 15 to 20 million dollars per film to appear as the Cap in mega-hits like 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War" and 2019's "Avengers: Endgame," and having his pick of prestige projects thereafter. However, not every move Evans has made has been a winner.

After a while, Evans eschewed his clean-cut look for a big, bushy beard. And while the look may have worked in terms of toughening up Cap's on-screen image, the fan reviews were less rosy off-screen for the MCU star. "He's turning into Nicholas Cage," joked one commenter in response to a 2024 Entertainment Tonight TikTok clip in which Evans addressed the look. "He is one of the few people I would say no beard. He doesn't have a nice beard," read a 2024 X comment. The beard may not be among the reasons we don't see Evans anymore, but there's no doubt it has divided fans.

Ariana Grande's path to superstardom has been something to behold, from her humble beginnings as a young teen actor on the 2010s Nickelodeon television series "Victorious" and its spin-off "Sam & Cat" to a pop idol era marked by the release of six albums that reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and, finally, her recent box office success with the "Wicked" series. For much of her climb to the top of the show business mountain, though, Grande continued to roll out a high ponytail hairstyle that came to be her calling card (she's practically unrecognizable with her natural hair). As she has grown as a person and performer, however, she has branched out into the realm of more mature looks, and not everyone has been on board with the transformation.

As reported by AOL in 2019, some fans lost their minds at the prospect of her ditching her iconic look. And over the ensuing years, others have lamented her decision to roll out different styles and waxed nostalgic for her classic look. "I was so obsessed with dark-haired low ponytail Ariana, my favorite era of hers, truly," wrote one fan via X in 2025. "I can't wait for Ariana Grande to go back to being normal," wrote another X user. "Bring back the ponytail."