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15 Male Celebrities Fans Consider Ugly Hot

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Nazarii Verbitskiy

Entertainment - September 25th 2026, 15:30 GMT+2

Cropped Eddie Redmayne — 15. Eddie Redmayne

Eddie Redmayne has never looked like he was assembled from Hollywood’s standard leading-man kit, which is probably part of the appeal. The freckles, narrow features, prominent cheekbones, and remarkably expressive face can shift from charming to slightly strange within the same scene. Winning an Oscar for *The Theory of Everything* established his dramatic credentials, while *Fantastic Beasts* turned him into a full-blown franchise star. Redmayne’s attraction is less about perfection than a face with enough character to remain interesting. | © Focus Features

Timothée Chalamet — 14. Timothée Chalamet

Calling Timothée Chalamet “ugly” is a dangerous way to start an argument online, but his appeal definitely falls outside the square-jawed Hollywood template. Chalamet is all sharp cheekbones, messy curls, narrow shoulders, and angles that seem to change every time a camera moves. *Call Me by Your Name* made him an instant heartthrob, while *Dune* proved that his unusual look could carry a gigantic blockbuster too. He resembles an impossibly fashionable 19th-century poet, and apparently that is a very effective lane. | © Warner Bros. Pictures

Tom Hiddleston Thor — 13. Tom Hiddleston

Before Loki, Tom Hiddleston looked more like the handsome professor you accidentally develop a crush on than Marvel’s next major sex symbol. Then came the black hair, mischievous grin, elaborate costumes, and enough theatrical swagger to make villainy suspiciously attractive. Hiddleston’s long face and lanky frame aren’t the usual superhero combination, especially standing beside Chris Hemsworth, but that contrast became part of his appeal. A decade-plus of Loki fandom suggests charisma can do an astonishing amount of heavy lifting. | © Paramount Pictures

Andrew scott — 12. Andrew Scott

Andrew Scott can transform his face from approachable to genuinely alarming with one tiny change in expression, a skill that has done extraordinary things for his sex-symbol status. His Moriarty in *Sherlock* was unpredictable enough to be frightening, then *Fleabag* introduced the Hot Priest and gave viewers a completely different reason to obsess over him. Scott isn’t polished in the traditional movie-star sense; his appeal comes through movement, voice, eye contact, and ridiculous amounts of intensity. Watching a still photograph simply doesn’t explain the phenomenon. | © Universal Studios

11. Pete Davidson

Pete Davidson may be the celebrity who turned “wait, why is he attractive?” into an entire cultural conversation. His tattoos, sleepy eyes, lanky build, and permanently amused expression hardly scream conventional leading man, yet his dating history has repeatedly sent the internet into amateur detective mode trying to identify the secret. Anyone who watched him on *Saturday Night Live* already knows the likeliest answer: he’s funny, self-deprecating, and unusually comfortable being awkward. Apparently making people laugh beats having a mathematically perfect jawline. | © A24

10. Benedict Cumberbatch

Benedict Cumberbatch’s rise to internet heartthrob was so intense that it briefly felt like everyone online was required to have an opinion about his face. His unusually long features, high cheekbones, pale eyes, and deep voice gave Sherlock Holmes an almost otherworldly quality in *Sherlock*, and the fandom explosion followed almost immediately. Doctor Strange later turned the same eccentric appearance into superhero material without sanding down what made him distinctive. Cumberbatch is proof that memorable can be considerably more powerful than traditionally handsome. | © HBO

9. Javier Bardem

Javier Bardem has spent much of his career proving that intimidating and attractive occupy surprisingly close real estate. His heavy features and imposing stare helped make Anton Chigurh in *No Country for Old Men* one of cinema’s great villains, while *Skyfall* weaponized that same presence in a completely different direction. Bardem won an Oscar playing a man with one of the worst haircuts ever committed to film, which feels strangely appropriate here. Give him the right voice, suit, and lighting, and rugged suddenly becomes magnetic. | © Miramax Films

8. Barry Keoghan

Barry Keoghan has somehow made looking mildly dangerous at all times into a legitimate romantic selling point. *The Killing of a Sacred Deer* used his unusual features to deeply unsettling effect, *The Banshees of Inisherin* revealed a much softer side, and then *Saltburn* arrived and sent certain corners of the internet completely off the rails. Keoghan’s crooked smile and unpredictable screen presence make it difficult to decide whether a character should be trusted. For a surprisingly large number of fans, uncertainty appears to be part of the attraction. | © MGM

7. Rami Malek

Rami Malek possesses one of those faces a casting director could pick out of a crowd in roughly half a second. His enormous eyes, pronounced jaw, and intense stare made him perfect as the socially isolated Elliot Alderson in *Mr. Robot*, long before an Oscar-winning turn as Freddie Mercury in *Bohemian Rhapsody* pushed him into another level of fame. Malek can look vulnerable, sinister, glamorous, or slightly alien depending on the role. Conventional? Not particularly. Forgettable? Absolutely never, which is much more useful for a movie star. | © 20th Century Studios

Adrien Brody in Blonde — 6. Adrien Brody

Adrien Brody’s profile would probably make a Hollywood executive from the 1950s nervous, which only helps explain why he remains so visually distinctive. His long face, prominent nose, lean build, and serious expression made him instantly recognizable well before *The Pianist* made him the youngest Best Actor winner in Oscar history. More than two decades later, *The Brutalist* brought him a second Academy Award and another reminder that his face practically belongs on a giant cinema screen. Brody was never generic enough to disappear into a crowd. | © Netflix

5. Pedro Pascal

Pedro Pascal’s transformation into the internet’s collective crush was less a sudden event than a steadily escalating situation nobody bothered to stop. Oberyn Martell in *Game of Thrones* started it; *The Mandalorian* somehow kept it going while hiding most of his face; *The Last of Us* finished the job with graying hair and exhausted-surrogate-dad energy. Pascal’s appeal has never depended on looking impossibly polished. The smile lines, mustache, slightly rumpled appearance, and famous charm give him something far more useful: he looks like an actual person. | © Paramount Pictures

4. Jeremy Allen White

Jeremy Allen White spent years playing Lip Gallagher on *Shameless* without Hollywood quite deciding what to do with his unconventional appeal. Then *The Bear* happened, Carmy Berzatto started screaming inside restaurant kitchens, and suddenly millions of people discovered that stress, tattoos, messy curls, and permanently exhausted eyes could be a potent combination. White has a wonderfully specific face—part Gene Wilder, part guy who desperately needs eight hours of sleep. The fact that he never appears overly aware of his sex-symbol status only seems to intensify it. | © Go Be One Motion Pictures

3. Paul Mescal

Paul Mescal became a sex symbol with the help of emotional devastation, tiny athletic shorts, and a silver chain that practically developed its own fanbase. *Normal People* made his Connell Waldron painfully believable rather than movie-star polished, and that ordinary quality was exactly what viewers responded to. *Aftersun* later earned Mescal an Oscar nomination, while *Gladiator II* gave Hollywood an excuse to add considerably more muscle to the equation. He still looks more like someone you might actually meet at the pub than a manufactured celebrity heartthrob. | © Paramount Pictures

2. Adam Driver

Adam Driver might be the undisputed patron saint of the “ugly hot” conversation, largely because nobody can agree on the first half of that phrase. His prominent nose, long face, huge frame, dark hair, and almost aggressively intense screen presence are miles away from the interchangeable Hollywood leading-man mold. *Girls* introduced the appeal, Kylo Ren in the *Star Wars* sequels made it global, and *Marriage Story* proved there was serious dramatic talent underneath the memes. Driver doesn’t look designed by committee, and that may be precisely why he works. | © Walt Disney Pictures

Cillian murphy batman begins — 1. Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy’s face can be beautiful or vaguely terrifying depending on the lighting, which has served him extremely well for more than two decades. Those famously bright blue eyes and razor-sharp cheekbones made him impossible to ignore in *28 Days Later* and *Batman Begins*, while Tommy Shelby in *Peaky Blinders* turned the Irish actor into a global obsession. Winning the Best Actor Oscar for *Oppenheimer* only expanded his audience. Murphy doesn’t have a soft, welcoming movie-star face; he looks intense even while sitting perfectly still, and fans clearly approve. | © Warner Bros. Pictures

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Being conventionally handsome is overrated—at least according to the internet. Some male celebrities have built enormous fanbases despite, or sometimes because of, features that don’t exactly fit the traditional Hollywood heartthrob mold. Whether it’s an unusual face, an intimidating presence, or charisma doing most of the heavy lifting, these famous men have repeatedly earned the strangely affectionate label of “ugly hot.” And judging by how fiercely fans defend them, conventional beauty standards never really stood a chance.

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Being conventionally handsome is overrated—at least according to the internet. Some male celebrities have built enormous fanbases despite, or sometimes because of, features that don’t exactly fit the traditional Hollywood heartthrob mold. Whether it’s an unusual face, an intimidating presence, or charisma doing most of the heavy lifting, these famous men have repeatedly earned the strangely affectionate label of “ugly hot.” And judging by how fiercely fans defend them, conventional beauty standards never really stood a chance.