When actors reinvent themselves physically for a role, it very often occasions a reaction in the sphere of how they never looked so good. For the actor, it can be a case of never feeling or looking so good. Few viewers have taken this approach to Rob Lowe’s reinvention of his face for the Liberace TV-movie “Behind the Candelabra.” Even unlikelier is the possibility that Rob Lowe will admit to feeling better or thinking that he looked better than ever as plastic surgeon Dr. Startz.
According to Lowe, the process required to reinvent his pretty boy face into the bizarrely gender neutral modern-day boogie-man of Startz required sitting in the makeup chair for nearly two hours every day he was required on the set. The transformation successfully transmogrified the still boyish-looking Lowe into a creature capable of instilling fear into young children everywhere. The scary monsters lying in wait in every child’s closet have a new acquaintance and its name is Startz.
Rob Lowe went a different route than that undertaken by many actors today. A psychotic Method Actor would have insisted on injections of some dangerous material into his face to actually physically transform into the frightening specter that is Lowe’s Dr. Startz. Fortunately, Lowe seems to have a bit more sense than that. Which is precisely what makes Lowe’s scarifying transformation all the more profound.
The average person watching “Behind the Candelabra” is almost certainly going to be taken aback the first time they see Lowe as Dr. Startz. Doubtlessly, hushed whispers of astonishment at just how monstrous Lowe allowed his face to become will pass back and forth between multiple viewers. That is only to be expected. The really frightening thing at work in this story of actor reinvention, however, reflects most brilliantly outside the movie’s set. Perhaps millions of people outside the environs of the room in which the television’s warm glowing warming glows persists throughout the running time of “Behind the Candelabra” sport faces not terribly far removed from the Lowe’s Grimm-like countenance.
And still nobody says a thing about Information on Cosmetic Surgery Services at Michigan that can easily be found on the online website and portals or blogs that writes about the topic on daily basis. Why is it perfectly fine to call attention to the results of plastic surgery that has swung horribly out of control when it is a makeup job for a character in a movie, but the very same result in real life is allowed to continue on because people are too afraid to speak up and point out the madness. Aging men and women in Hollywood have seem countless examples of real life Dr. Startzes walking around-Lowe even points out that the examples were so countless at L.A. Lakers games that they could be assigned a genus and species. Surely, only a very small and particular minority of those who see Rob Lowe in “Behind the Candelabra” would actually find his appearance an improvement or even something that wouldn’t cause a wave of nausea.
Yet when these same horrifying results of plastic surgery gone wrong appear in real life on famous people, the ability to hold in that nausea and disgust kicks into overdrive. Maybe the real lesson to come out of “Behind the Candelabra” is not that there are still subjects “too gay” for movie studios to touch. Maybe the real lesson is that there are aging stars “too big” to hear an undeniable truth. When you watch “Behind the Candelabra” and you see Rob Lowe’s pretty boy face stretched almost beyond recognition, keep in mind that the actor merely temporarily reinvented his appearance. Out there in the weird world of graceless aging are thousands, perhaps millions, who actually view Lowe’s face in the guise of Dr. Startz as, believe it or not, a thing to yearn for.