Ridley Scott's "The Counselor" features some interesting looks from Brad Pitt (greasy hair, cowboy hat) and Javier Bardem (whatever is going on here), but co-star Rosie Perez still feels like she drew the short end of the straw.


Perez, who plays a prisoner in the film, says when she arrived on set, Scott requested that she remove all makeup and hair products.


"I look busted and disgusted," she reportedly told WENN (via Contact Music). According to Perez, Scott told the makeup artists to "put some dark circles under her eyes and make her look ugly." Countered Perez: "I go, 'Why? There's women who do their hair in prison!' But it was great for the character."


This isn't the first time Perez has been surprised by a director's hair and makeup request. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about "Do The Right Thing" (the article is not yet online), Perez recalled how Spike Lee had the film's hairstylist cut her locks off, much to her chagrin. "I thought I was going to die. I go, 'What the f-ck are you doing?' He goes, 'Spike told me to give you the Salt-N-Pepa!' And I go, 'Are you kidding me? You don't cut a Puerto Rican's hair!'" she told the magazine. "So I say to Spike, 'This motherf-cker cut my hair! Why didn't you tell me?' He goes, 'That's what happens on movies.'"


"The Counselor" is out in theaters on Oct. 25. For more on Perez, head to Contact Music.





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  • Javier Bardem - "No Country for Old Men"


    Javier Bardem sported a pretty unflattering haircut for his role as an vicious sociopath in the film "No Country for Old Men." He wasn't a fan of the chop at first, reports About.com, but<a href="http://movies.about.com/od/nocountryforoldmen/a/countryjb111407_2.htm"> credits the style</a> for later helping him connect to the role that ultimately earned him the Oscar for Best Actor.

    "So, I went to the trailer and they cut it and I saw it and I said, 'What the hell is that?'" he said. "But that helped a lot actually, because in a way he gave this reality to the character, this dimension of being very methodical. Everything is in place. It's kind of mathematical, like perfectly structured which is the way I thought the character should be: perfectly clean."




  • George Clooney in "Syriana"


    Pasta became George Clooney's best friend as he worked to gain weight for his role as a CIA agent Robert Baer in "Syriana." Clooney <a href="http://entertainment.ca.msn.com/movies/galleries/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=21658738&page=2">gained over 30 pounds</a>, according to MSN.com, though <a href="http://xfinity.comcast.net/slideshow/entertainment-starswhogainedweightforroles/8/">he told</a> The Tech that the process is "not nearly as fun as it sounds."

    "So my job was just to eat as fast as I could, as much as I could ... But mostly you just ate until you wanted to throw up, and made sure you didn't throw up. So that was my job for a month, was eating," he said.

    Clooney went on to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his part in the film.




  • Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose"


    To play iconic French singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose," Marion Cotillard had to shave her eyebrows and hairline and even change her voice, a piece of her character she told USA Today she <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/movieawards/oscars/2008-02-14-marion-cotillard-main_N.htm">struggled to part with</a>.

    "... I have to confess. When I shot the movie, off the set, my voice was more the voice of the character than mine. It took a little while for it to go up again," she said.

    The makeup process took five hours each day and an additional hour each night to remove the latex and glue used for her transformation. The dedication paid off in the best way, though, with Cotillard snagging the Best Actress Oscar at the 2008 Academy Awards.




  • Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler"


    Mickey Rourke added a considerable amount of muscle to his frame to play troubled wrestler Randy "the Ram" Robinson in "The Wrestler," a role that got him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Rourke told MTV News he <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1594599/mickey-rourke-talks-about-training-wrestler.jhtml">went through an intense training process</a> to beef up several months before filming started.

    "I got a really good Israeli trainer who made me pump iron and do the cardio for four months," he said. "Then we did two hours of weight training and cardio and two hours of wrestling practice."

    Rourke said the playing the role was nothing like his days as a professional boxer and that after just a few days he "knew this would be the hardest movie I ever made."




  • Brad Pitt in "12 Monkeys"


    Brad Pitt abandoned his signature sexy looks to take play a crazed animal activist in "12 Monkeys." He cut his hair, masked his blue eyes behind contact lenses and put on a convincingly manic performance that earned him an Oscar nomination and a Best Supporting Actor honor at the 1996 Golden Globes ceremony.

    The film's director Terry Gilliam told Henri Béhar of Film Scouts that casting Pitt in the role <a href="http://www.filmscouts.com/scripts/interview.cfm?File=ter-gil">was a successful risk</a> for both him and his co-star Bruce Willis.

    "We worked very hard at changing his look. He's no longer the sexiest man in America and it's wonderful," said Gilliam. "I think both Brad and Bruce have taken big leaps and they're dangerous leaps. They could have fallen flat on their face but I think it ended up amazing."




  • Hilary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry"


    Hilary Swank's transformation for the film "Boys Don't Cry"<a href="http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-11-18/lifestyle/9911170464_1_boys-don-t-cry-brandon-teena-director-kimberly-peirce"> began with a haircut</a> at Astor Place Barbershop in New York City where she chopped off her blond locks immediately after being cast in the role, according to the LA Times.

    She dyed her hair brown and began a workout routine to help her slim down and better expose her facial structure. She also began taking lessons to lower the tone of her voice and began to try to pass as a boy in public.

    "People used the pronoun 'he' all the time, but I'm sure not everyone thought I was a boy. There were people who were confused by my gender. And in those instances, if I blurred that line and didn't fit into the stereotypical image of boy or girl, people didn't want to have anything to do with me," she said.

    Swank took home the Oscar for Best Actress.




  • Robert De Niro in "Raging Bull"


    For his role in "Raging Bull" as former middleweight boxer Jake La Motta, Robert De Niro had to to go from fit to flab -- he played the younger, healthier La Motta as well as the overweight shadow of himself the boxer ultimately became.

    De Niro worked out and closely watched his diet going into initial filming of the movie. According to ESPN Page 2, he took the film's four month break from shooting to gain 60 pounds, weight gain that De Niro shared <a href="http://espn.go.com/page2/s/closer/020703.html">didn't leave him feeling the most comfortable</a>.

    "You get rashes on your legs. Your legs scrape together," he said.

    The extra pounds led him to a Best Actor Oscar in 1980.




  • Melissa Leo in "The Fighter"


    Melissa Leo's role as Alice Ward, the mother of boxers Dicky Eklund and Micky Ward, won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

    Johnny Villanueva and Donald Mowat <a href="http://www.fashionmagazine.com/blogs/beauty/2011/02/24/the-beauty-of-the-fighter/2/">led a makeup and hair team that</a> teased, powdered and styled Leo to '80s perfection. For makeup, the team used colors that didn't quite compliment each other as well as a stain to yellow her teeth due to Ward's years of smoking.

    Leo felt her spot-on look coupled with spending time with Alice to research the character <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-doyle-palmer-/melissa-leo---the-fighter_b_803869.html">helped her nail the role</a>.

    "I realized I could do it and believed it when I walked out of the trailer there and the whole freaking town of Lowell believed it," she said.




  • Christian Bale in "The Fighter"


    After losing an extreme amount of weight to play boxing trainer Dicky Eklund in "The Fighter," Christian Bale said he most likely <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscar-winner-christian-bale-wont-162199">wouldn't make any major changes</a> to his body again. "I'm getting a little bit older now," said Bale backstage at the 83rd annual Academy Awards after winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. "I'm starting to recognize that if I do too much, there's no coming back from it. I don't have quite the mentality I did a few years back when I thought I was invincible. I've got a child now. I know too many of them. There's only so much a body can take." He told the Latino Review that he <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/how-christian-bale-lost-weight-the-fighter_n_793016.html">slimmed down for the role</a> by "running like crazy. I could just run for hours on end and I felt really healthy."




  • Nicole Kidman in "The Hours"


    Australian beauty Nicole Kidman experienced a serious make-under for her role as Virginia Woolf in "The Hours." The transformation took three hours each day and included the use of a prosthetic nose, something Kidman told O Magazine her kids <a href="http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Oprah-Interviews-Meryl-Streep-Nicole-Kidman-and-Julianne-Moore/5">didn't like much.
    </a>
    "They didn't like my new look!" said Kidman. "When I took my kids to see a movie the other night, Connor saw a poster for The Hours and said, 'I don't like that nose.' He was like, 'Uh-uh!'"

    Though the exceptional work of the makeup artists <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,625543,00.html">wasn't celebrated with a best makeup Oscar Nomination</a>, Kidman snagged the ultimate prize, an Oscar win for Best Actress.




  • Charlize Theron in "Monster"


    Though she <a href="http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,610667_615405,00.html">has been recognized</a> as one of PEOPLE's All Time Most Beautiful Women, Charlize Theron took on an entirely different look to play prostitute and serial killer Aileen Wuornos in "Monster" -- a role that earned her the Best Actress Oscar.

    From a new set of teeth sculpted specifically for her, to the addition of liquid latex on her face to give it a worn, leathery appearance and an army of freckles airbrushed on her face, makeup artist Tony G transformed Theron almost beyond recognition. This even included <a href="http://www.aboutfilm.com/features/monster/interviews.htm">plucking out and bleaching her eyebrows</a>, Theron told Aboutfilm.com, "because Aileen had barely had any eyebrows."

    "My job as an actor, and the part of my job that I love is the transforming-and-becoming aspect of it, and so it doesn't become about me anymore," said Theron. "I think that you have to step away from yourself, if you're going to do it. Otherwise don't do it; otherwise why do it?"




  • Naomi Watts in "The Impossible"


    For her role as a mother separated from her husband and kids by the 2004 tsunami that ravaged Thailand, Naomi Watts sported bruises and cuts all over her face and body -- and earned a Best Actress nod for this year's Oscars.

    The look <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/naomi-watts-impossible_n_2346016.html">didn't initially sit well</a> with her two sons whom she brought along for the filming of the movie. But they slowly warmed up to the temporary injuries.

    "They came first time on a day where I had minimal wounds - nothing too much. ... And then by the third day they came, they were putting the chocolate powder all over me and painting some wounds on themselves and me. So they understood it," she said.