Even a baby knows which movie character is a bad guy and which good. How does a make-up crew produce such a response from the audience? They just give the bad guy bad skin.
Sixty per cent of Hollywood villains have bad skin while zero percentage of the heroes have any such affliction, according to a study done by researchers at the University of Texas, Galveston.
The study analysed the facial features of the all-time top ten villains and heroes in American films as included in the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Heroes and Villains List.
The researchers found that the villains display a significantly higher incidence of dermatological blemishes than the top 10 heroes (60% vs 0%). The study was published in the latest issue of the journal JAMA Dermatology.
Six of the all-time top 10 American film villains have dermatologic conditions, including significant alopecia (30%), periorbital hyperpigmentation (30%), deep rhytides on the face (20%), multiple facial scars (20%), verruca vulgaris on the face (20%), and rhinophyma (10%).
Comparably, none of the heroes had any such skin condition.
The study says filmmakers use dermatologic disease to indicate dissolute or corrupt character. It’s a trend that began in the silent film era. In a time during which immoral character could not be conveyed through spoken word, filmmakers relied heavily on using dermatologic conditions to convey wickedness visually.
“The face and scalp, which receive disproportionately more camera time than the remainder of the body, constituted prime real estate for dermatologic disease,” the study says.
Furthermore, it was not uncommon to include several dermatologic conditions in 1 villainous character for dramatic effect. Deeply rooted in silent film, these early dermatologic portrayals in the movies persist today and constitute an underlying thread tying past to present cinema.
THE FACE OF A VILLAIN
Here are the top ten villain characters in Hollywood and the skin condition they had.
1. Dr Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs)
Skin condition: Androgenic alopecia (spot hair loss)
2. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins in Psycho)
Skin condition: None
3. Darth Vader (David Prowse in Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back)
Skin condition: Scars on cheek and scalp vertex, deep rhytides (wrinkles) on face, hyperpigmentation (gray-hued complexion), alopecia
4. Wicked Witch of the West (Maragaret Hamilton, Wizard of Oz, 1939)
Skin condition: Verruca vulgaris on right chin
5. Nurse Ratched (louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
Skin condition: None
6. Mr Potter (Lionel Barrymore, It’s a Wonderful Life)
Skin condition: Androgenic alopecia
7. Alex Forrest (Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction)
Skin condition: None
8. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity, 1944)
Skin condition: Androgenic alopecia
9. Regan MacNeil (Linda blair, The Exorcist)
Skin condition: Lacerations, periorbital hyperpigmentation
10. The Queen (Sucille La Verne in Snow White and the Seven Dwarf, 1939)
Skin condition: Rhinophyma (bulbous nose), periorbital hyperpigmentation (dark circles)
VILLAINS MADE UP
· Alopecia (hair loss)
· Periorbital hyperpigmentation (dark circles around the eyes)
· Deep rhytides (wrinkles)
· Scars
· Verruca vulgaris (warts)
· Rhinophyma (bulbous nose)
· Extensive tattoos
· Large facial nevi (lesions)
· Poliosis (patch of white hair)
· Albinism (grey-hued complexion)