Let rom-com leading men be attainably hot again
Swole gods like Glen Powell have strayed from a long tradition of rom-com men being just attractive enough
Film Features Rom
A mere 15 seconds into the first, very confusing teaser trailer for Anyone But You—the fizzy romantic comedy starring Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney as frenemies-turned-fake-lovers—it was clear that Powell’s Ben would be a specific kind of rom-com leading man: the ridiculously, life-ruining-ly hot kind. Flexing off the side of a sailboat wearing nothing but swim trunks with a Paul Mescal-approved inseam and an ungodly amount of abs, Powell’s blatant Men’s Health-cover hotness wasn’t just perfectly matched by Sweeney’s own blonde-and-busty sex appeal, but it was also a signal that this was a rom-com that was trading in the aspirational, not the attainable.
That’s in no way meant to cheapen Powell’s leading-man bonafides. The man has rom-com rizz in spades, as evidenced by the fact that Anyone But You has become the highest-grossing R-rated rom-com since 2016’s Bridget Jones’ Baby, clearing more than $100 million globally at the box office. But the obviousness of his beauty (dude looks like he was built in the same thirst lab as Ryan Gosling, Scott Eastwood and, notably, his Golden Globes doppelganger Justin Hartley) places Powell’s Ben firmly in a category shared by the likes of Crazy Rich Asians’ Henry Golding and Crazy Stupid Love’s Gosling: buffed, bronzed and untouchably, inaccessibly and, yes, crazily attractive.
These are not the type of men you could imagine seeing in the line at Trader Joe’s or playing fetch with their dog in the park or bored to death in the waiting room at the dentist. And, notably, they are not the type of men who came to define the rom-com genre during its golden age, from the late ’80s through the early aughts. We’re talking about the “attainably hot” kind—undeniably attractive (this is showbiz, after all), but more likely to flex charisma than a bicep.
Let’s look at the rom-com kings of yore. There’s Tom Hanks, a titan of the genre with You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and Joe Versus The Volcano, and the closest thing we have to a male America’s Sweetheart. Handsome, obviously, but not an outright heartthrob per se, Hanks easily parlayed his everyman appeal into “I could totally date that guy” familiarity through his crackling chemistry and comedic warmth opposite frequent leading lady Meg Ryan.
Speaking of, Billy Crystal—Ryan’s love interest in what is widely considered the greatest rom-com of all time, When Harry Met Sally—was a seemingly unlikely leading man even to the makers of that film. (Screenwriter Nora Ephron reportedly worried that he and Meg Ryan were too unevenly matched in terms of looks, so much so that they ended up slapping dorky specs on Sally Albright to make up for it.) But Crystal, ye of short-king stature and receding hairline, proved both Nora and the naysayers wrong by infusing his cynical-but-sweet Harry Burns with a low-key sexiness that has endured for decades. (That beard and fisherman’s sweater combo certainly doesn’t hurt.)
And take Adam Sandler, who proved he could master the comedic end of things (Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore) but not the romantic side until he starred in The Wedding Singer. The 1998 charmer—in which the comedian played earnest crooner Robbie Hart opposite Drew Barrymore’s equally adorable waitress Julia Sullivan—established Sandler as a dorky-hot rom-com lead and he stretched the appeal of that sweet-schlub humor and a nice smile into two more titles with Barrymore, 2004’s 50 First Dates and 2014’s Blended.
These fellas didn’t need chiseled jawlines, perfect coifs, and Brad Pitt-in-Fight Club bods to sell the hell out of a swoon-worthy meet-cute or a perfectly-timed finale grand gesture. And neither did John Cusack in Say Anything, Jack Black in The Holiday, John Corbett in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Jason Segal in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, or James Gandolfini in Enough Said. We want our Colin Firth dweeby in an ugly Christmas sweater (Bridget Jones’ Diary), our Mark Ruffalo at his most boy-next-door and puppy-eyed (13 Going On 30), and our Kumail Nanjiani not yet so well-acquainted with a weight bench (The Big Sick).
Hell, if we had to engineer the platonic ideal of an “attainably hot” rom-com man, it might just be Bill Pullman in While You Were Sleeping. His scruffy carpenter Jack Callaghan slow-burns with those soft normcore sweatshirts, soulful brown eyes, and the devastating way he leans. His dreaminess is of the tangible, touchable sort: you can so imagine forking your fingers through that fluffy ’90s hair that you damn near stick your hand through the screen.
Yes, the romantic comedy is an inherently escapist genre—if anyone tried to do half the things that happen in movies like My Best Friend’s Wedding or Love Actually or Never Been Kissed, they would very likely be arrested or at the very least psychiatrically observed. But that doesn’t mean we want or need all things symmetrical and sinewy when it comes to the men offering up that onscreen fantasy.
So let the absolutely adorkable 5-foot-5 Daniel Radcliffe sweep Quinta Brunson off her similarly petite feet in a rom-com. Let Daniel Kaluuya flash that suave charm and those pearly whites in a sweet first-date scene. Let the attainably hot men of television’s own rom-com renaissance—your Tyler James Williamses, your Jake Johnsons, your William Jackson Harpers—graduate to the big leagues and get moviegoing audiences swooning. And let Glen Powell skip the gym once in a while: 2018’s Set It Up proved that the guy could scale back the swoleness with some sweet-and-sour snark and a bad haircut. A few weeks without those daily bicep pumps and he might just start to resemble someone we’d encounter at the dry cleaners. And we’ll be seated and ready for it.
49 Comments
We had Long Shot not that long ago – Seth Rogen is definitely not unattainably hot, especially as compared to Charlize Theron.I think honestly that in all the classics that both the leads were attainably hot. Meg Ryan, Drew, Renee Zellweger all fell firmly into “cute” territory. I guess Julia Roberts was thought of more on the beautiful side, but then Richard Gere and Hugh Grant were probably both thought of us unattainably hot dudes as well. So maybe it’s more a balance that’s needed. Syd & Glenn are pretty close in hotness level, and like you said, when he was toned down in Set It Up, he was also paired with the current icon of cute, Zoey Deutch, so the balance worked there too.
I haven’t seen Anyone but You, but the idea that Powell and Sweeney wouldn’t be hooking up within six hours of meeting each other is ludicrous. Hanks, Crystal and Sandler all were conventionally attractive enough, but far more than that brought personality (Crystal especially, with his short man confidence) to the equation. I know lots of average-looking guys with beautiful wives and girlfriends (and vice-versa, actually) because physical attraction only carries you so far. Many of them first cycled through a bunch of relationships with people who were more their “level” for lack of a better word before fully absorbing that lesson.
You have not seen it. Because that is pretty much how the movie starts.
I think we can agree that I have not seen it. But the premise seemed like the “will they/won’t they” trope again, right down to the title.
It’s more “Will they again after a misunderstanding?”
I’m optimistic!
The functional problem is that Hollywood in the 00’s had a cottage industry in pumping up buff blonde white (often Australian) guys in an attempt to looks max their way to box office success. They tried it with Chris Hemsworth, they tried it with Jai Courtenay, Sam Worthington got in early as James Cameron’s resident buff blonde white Australian guy to replace Michael Biehn — and that’s his life now and he makes amazing money at it.They all failed outside of superhero films (and James Cameron). And Hollywood refuses to stop because they’re not exactly sure what movies people want to watch.Call it white supremacy, call it projected male gaze and white supremacy, call it whatever you want. Hollywood was OBSESSED with putting jacked, blonde white guys in absolutely everything no matter the failures or costs or stumbling blocks.The problem with all of these guys? They’re comic relief. Usually supporting cast. Exceptional in the bullpen but not Team Captain.Being a comedian is HARD WORK, and they deserve all of the credit for being funny as hell, but that’s literally their wheel house and they’ve never been compelling as smoldering leading men.Glenn Powell is the attempt to bridge that gap. He’s comic relief. He’s jacked. He’s a white blonde guy. What could go wrong!But romantic comedies need LEADS and these guys are usually not lead material. They’re comic RELIEF.Don’t expect that to change. They really think they’ve cracked the code this time and the box office will have absolutely nothing to do with whether or not they believe it’s effective. It’ll just be vibes.
You can go back further and off the Outback. We tried to make Josh Lucas a thing, figuring Dollar Store McCounaghey was better than nothing.
It blows my mind that anyone ever considered Sam Worthington “hot.” He’s the ordinariest of ordinary I’ve ever seen, in EVERY way, including both acting ability and looks.Also TIL that Michael Biehn was ever buff or hot.
To quote Olivier, part of it is acting. And part of it is story.Richard Gere is one of the most handsome men ever to be in movies. Hell, my 17-year-old high school girlfriend would have thrown me over the side for him in 1990, when he was 41. And that’s only if my 50-year-old mother hadn’t snagged him first.But that character was a bit loathsome, a bit damaged, and was kind of tarnished by hanging around with Jason Alexander. You could believe he’d be a bad boyfriend/husband.
Yup. And let’s add to that Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire. Even though he starts out even trying to be a better person (with his ‘mission statement’) he is a bit damaged (incapable of being alone).
Good comparison. Both of those characters are the products of incredible good looks and financial success. Gere didn’t trust anyone after a wealthy but lonely upbringing, and Cruise could constantly surround himself with hot women and shallow agent and athlete friends so that he never had to develop as an independent adult.
Meh. As long as we’re making the guys “attainably hot” can we do the same with the women? Diverse casting, unique and interesting appearances, and well-developed characters would improve the whole industry.
I got slammed on a message board once (well, by a few people) for saying I thought CCH Pounder was hot. :-/
…considering there’s *one* example of the “current bad trend” and countless examples of “the good old days,” maybe the issue is a lack of romantic comedies being made/theatrically distributed?
I like Tom Hanks & Billy Crystal, but neither were ever anywhere in the vicinity of hot. John Corbett and Mark Ruffalo count as hot. John Cusack was at least cute.
That’s a good point. They weren’t hot, either attainably or unattainably so. They were average looking men with good personalities. That can translate to attractiveness but it doesn’t translate to physical hotness.
The problem is, mileage varies so much. There’s also the vintage concept. As in, “hot in a certain movie.”Remember the “hall pass” game? As in, who would your partner let you sleep with? My partner at the time said: “Keanu in Speed? Yes. Keanu in Bill & Ted? No.”I remember Patrick Dempsey as some 80s/early 90s twerp that was Dollar Store Broderick. Then I look up and he’s the hottest thing on TV some how.Speaking from my male gaze, I just have never gotten the Sarah Jessica Parker thing. Just do not find her attractive at all. OTOH, Courtney Cox with that black hair/blue eye thing, was the hottest Friend to me. Her career in romcoms isn’t nearly the same as Aniston’s.
I think young Tom Hanks was in the vicinity of hot, but he matured in an age of notoriously terrible hairstyles that especially did not suit him. By the time that had faded, he had a definite dad look.
In his early movies, he landed Darryl Hannah, Tawny Kitaen and Sela Ward. You can throw Elizabeth Perkins in too, although she never did it for me.
Yeah, I mean here he is in Bachelor Party. He’s good looking enough, and has tons of personality, confidence and wit. That’s a solid combination.
Then there’s Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, and yet we still end up rooting for him. Somehow. But that’s just a great script.But sometimes it’s like people have to be told who they’re supposed to think is hot. No women gave Colin Firth a double-take until he was Mr Darcy with an open white poofy shirt diving into the estate pond(!). Only then did he start getting the accolades.
Jerry Maguire made the right call of demonstrating the depth in a guy with the looks and charm very easily skate through a superficial life. That’s why we pulled for him (so yes – great script).
Okay but do the women get to be “attainably” hot too, or do they still all have to look like Meg Ryan?Also: If you don’t think Daniel Kaluuya is a heartthrob I’ll get you some glasses. I don’t know where you’ve seen a man like that in line at Trader Joe’s but please tell me which Trader Joe’s.
First, this whole idea of obtainable/unobtainable is kind of sketchy. We end up projecting the idea of “unobtainable” on the person, like it’s some intrinsic quality that they have, and I think that Meg Ryan is a perfect example of that. My perspective is as a cis gay man, but I don’t think Meg Ryan, from a “beauty” standpoint, is unobtainable at all. She’s super cute. But she’s so charming and charismatic in her rom com roles (and has really good styling), start to think over her as an unobtainable beauty. And then you add the fact that she was an ultra-successful movie star of her time, it just ramps up that perception. But that’s what it is, a perception. I’ve known plenty of people that I think are just as super-cute as Meg Ryan, and I don’t think they’d be described as unobtainable.Drew Barrymore has a number of hit rom-coms under her belt, and I don’t think most people would describe her as unobtainable. Same for people like Julia Stiles or Alicia Silverstone.As others have mentioned, there are some people like Julia Roberts or Cameron Diaz who do seem to fall a bit more into “Hollywood gorgeous.” I don’t know what tends to make us think that way. In Diaz’s case, it may have been that she tended to play roles that were more explicitly “hot girls” (see “The Mask”). It could be that vaunted “facial symmetry” that tends to make us perceive people as beautiful. But Julia Roberts, especially, was usually paired with men who were considered very handsome from the standards of the time.What this is article seems to be pointing at, but I don’t think every comes right out and says, is that what legitimately is unobtainable about most of the guys the describe is the 0% body fat, huge bicep look of people like Chris Hemsworth. Richard Gere is an incredibly handsome man, and I’m sure he “kept fit” (another phrase often employed in a sketchy manner), but he wasn’t a Hemsworth.And this, to me is what the thesis of the article should be. Rom coms typically have starred people who can be described as some level of “attractive” but also seem realistic. Of course there’s always been way more pressure on women to achieve certain standards of beauty and to keep public images that fall in line with the characters they play. Body dysmorphia and eating disorders have been issues in the entertainment industry since film began (and probably before that), and while men have fallen victim to it through that time, it’s disproportionately affected women. Things really started ramping up in the 90s when “super-thin” became the industry norm and magazines and young actresses were pressured into PR for awful magazines like Maxim.
But the answer for equity isn’t now putting those same unobtainable physiques on men.
Diaz started as a model so there’s not a ton of mystery there; it’s how she was discovered. Roberts broke in with Pretty Woman, establishing her Hollywood heat from the jump (though she seemed much more normal in My Best Friend’s Wedding). But yeah I’ve also known plenty of women every bit as pretty as a lot of Hollywood women, many of whom are married to average-looking but nice/fun/funny guys.The Vacation remake was generally depressing but Hemsworth sending up what it might be like to be married to a seemingly perfect, rich and well-hung guy was fantastic.
What an insane comment.
Yes on both counts. Was going to say the same thing.
What this article doesn’t address is why the leading man in romcoms has changed, and I’d suggest that it’s because Hollywood has caught on to audience expectations.Here’s my argument. Those expectations have changed because millennial and Gen Z cishet women (who are the target for these movies) have never been in a world where online dating hasn’t existed and movies have adapted accordingly. Starting with Hot or Not and then evolving to Facebook’s predecessor Facemash, looks began to matter more and more as the primary determination of whether someone was worth going out with, at least if you met them online. Someone’s picture started mattering vastly more than the person behind it.And then Tinder came along and monetized this brilliantly in a way nobody had thought of and was a sea change for the industry.Instead of a profile with pictures – like its now-owner Match, which had dominated before Tinder came and disintermediated it – it reversed. It was pictures with a few lines of profile which determined whether or not someone was worthy of even being allowed to talk to you. Don’t think they’re hot enough? Swipe left, and never have to deal with them again.This is now the standard for dating apps (which pretty much every single person in those generations has tried), and it is no surprise that the storyline of romcoms has changed to match their experiences. It’s now to get someone who would almost certainly swipe left on you – aka “chiseled jawlines, perfect coifs, and Brad Pitt-in-Fight Club bods” – precisely because women watching have the experience of being rejected over and over by the 10s (which has been studied, and is the one rank where cishet men have an advantage despite the vast numerical odds against them that affect 1-9.)So it’s why the cast of romcoms have changed, because its what the majority of the audience for these wants to see nowadays: an unattainable lead matters because the girl finally gets to win with the guy she normally wouldn’t even be able to start a conversation with. That’s the new fantasy, and it’s what we’re seeing on film.Kinda sucks, but it makes a certain amount of sad sense.
This is a pretty complicated, socially fraught explanation for a thing that isn’t even a thing. You could 100% cherry pick a few recent romcoms with less that super-hot leading men from the last few years, compare it to ONE older romcom with a hot lead, and argue that there was a concerning trend against hot people, caused by (insert whatever social change bugs you the most).It would be nonsense, but no less nonsensical than both this article and this attempt to link it with personal dating grievances.
The greatest male rom com lead ever, Cary Grant, was also the most handsome, so not totally sure what to do with that
I thought it stopped when we were told that mediocre white men were not to be rewarded for being mediocre. There was so much blowback for average men getting the hot girl that it was stopped. So now only lab created super hot guys get to be in rom coms. (This is mostly snark as I completely believe and support the thesis of this article and many of the older rom coms are my favorite movies ever.) I am not even a fan of Sandler but 50 first dates is my go to when I need a good cry movie.
Ah yes, the Kevin James effect.
What is “attainably hot” anyways? Everyone has a type. If you see a person and think “They are to hot to date me” then maybe that is more an issue with your self esteem then it is with how the other person looks. Plus no matter how hot someone is, they are gonna still wake up with morning breath and their hair all screwed up, wearing the least flattering(but comfortable) PJs I think people need to give themselves more credit on who they could land. Maybe I am just lucky because my wife is extremely “out of my league” by my old self conscious standards
Co-sign. One of the most surprising days of my young life was the first time I forced myself to approach a girl who I assumed was going to blow me off, and instead we hit it off immediately. Dated for nearly 2 years in high school. That created exactly the realization you described. Why would you ever not take the at-bat? I also ended up lucky in marriage thanks to that mentality.
Look, Nilus: you know the real point of this article. It’s so they can get “attainably” hot male leads in rom-coms again, then they can write the “Why is it all these ugly 5/10 schlubs are getting paired up with 10/10 babes in rom-coms?” articles again and thus the cycle of clickbait continues.
Ah yes, the eternal conflict of “movie star hot” and “co-worker hot”. The former is almost never seen in the real world, but is a dime a dozen at the movies. The latter is a lot more interesting, but requires a certain amount of personal investment from the observer – you have to actually like co-worker hot – which is where a movie would have to put some work in.
Those guys USED to be the ones the male lead competed with for the female lead’s love.Sally’s boyfriend before Harry was played by Steven Ford, a walking Ken Doll. Sandra Bullock’s character in While You Were Sleeping walked away from Peter Gallagher for Bill Pullman.Greg Kinnear/Hanks – You’ve Got Mail. Alec Baldwin in his prime/Hugh Grant – Notting Hill. Rufus Sewell/Jack Black – Holiday. Jon Freaking Hamm/Chris O’Dowd – Bridesmaids.Hugh Grant/Colin Firth – Bridget Jones.I mean, James Marsden probably has at least two beach houses based on playing the better looking guy who doesn’t get the girl.
As far as comedians or guys who got a start in comedy, I call this the Jim Carrey Phenomenon.Just about every “serious” interview with Carrey in the 90s commented on how handsome he was in person, because he wasn’t doing stupid shit with his face and didn’t have Ace Ventura hair. Crystal and Hanks benefit from this. So did Robin Williams. Steve Carrell is a very credible leading man when he isn’t doing Brick Tamlin. (He may also have snuck a few sips of whatever baby seal blood Paul Rudd drinks to stay young.)
It’s bizarre to try to construct some kind of big trend from A SINGLE FUCKING MOVIE.
This entire article is complete confirmation bias nonsense.
Can I please know where you live? Because I am suddenly very interested in visiting a place where Tyler James Williams and William Jackson Harper are the middle of the road choices.
Seriously
I remember the day after that episode of ‘The Good Place’ came out. A lot of people were processing a lot of new feelings about William Jackson Harper.
Whereas the day that I re-evaluated William Jackson Harper was when he was on Ask Me Another and revealed that he had taken his dog to a pet psychic. And it wasn’t in a good way
Remember, all the AV Club were ordered to move to LA, sooooo… Yeah.
This is a tangent, but reminds me of a friend of mine complaining that reality TV shows these days are full of hot influencers types rather than the people who belong on such shows: severely unhinged outcasts forced to interact with other human beings for perhaps the first time in their lives.
“…in what is widely considered the greatest rom-com of all time, When Harry Met Sally…”
By whom? It’s a painfully watered down Annie Hall at best.Have you never seen an Ernst Lubitsch movie? Preston Sturges? Just curious.