MYTHBUSTER

In the biz, it is known as ‘ugging up’. It may not ring a bell, but you’ll know it when you see it. We are referring to that point in an actress’s career when she is justifiably tired of being judged as much for her ethereal looks as her talent. And so, in the services of character, she strips away all vestiges of glamour.

Nicole Kidman did it in 2002’s , as Virginia Woolf, with a prosthetic nose that was as riveting as her Oscar-winning performance. Two years later, Charlize — do we really have to). There was also Anne Hathaway’s dramatic weight loss and cropped ’do in 2012’s . Again, a gold statuette were among the accolades. But you have to go back to 1992 to reveal the original no-fucks-given bad-ass heroine. The movie was , the actor Sigourney Weaver.