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21-year-old actor Sam Nivola spoke with Variety about Hollywood and plastic surgery in an interview published on Aug. 7
The White Lotus star slammed “old movie stars” taking on younger roles instead of rising talent all because of their speculated faux youthful glow
Nivola’s statement comes during a time when plastic surgery confessions are on the rise among stars like the Kardashian-Jenners and more
Sam Nivola doesn’t think Hollywood’s obsession with plastic surgery is paradise.
The White Lotus actor spoke to Variety about his thoughts on the industry making room for rising talent, which he says can only be done if tenured — and cosmetically enhanced — stars stop taking all the roles.
“The old movie stars are getting plastic surgery, and they’re looking younger and they’re staying young. You have these really old people playing young roles. And it’s not giving any space for the young’uns to move in and make a name for themselves,” the 21-year-old told the outlet. “With all due respect to those people, one day they won’t be here anymore, literally, and they will have to create new stars.”
Fabio Lovino/HBO
Sam Nivola in season 3 of “The White Lotus”
Nivola, who portrayed Lochlan Ratliff opposite Patrick Schwarzenegger in the hit HBO series, added that there’s really only a “few examples” he can think of when recalling fresh star power in recent years.
“I think Timothée Chalamet is one of the best actors alive, and he’s a total star. He’s one of a very few examples I could come up with. But it’s a different kind of movie star; he’s not huge and jacked. He looks a little more like me.”
Although few actors have confessed to alterations (minus Courteney Cox, who in 2023 said she “messed up” with facial fillers back in the day), conversations around plastic surgery and enhancements reached a peak this year when stars like Kylie Jenner, Khloé Kardashian, Meghan Trainor, Joey Fatone and John Cena (who opened up to PEOPLE about his hair transplant) decided to get candid about going under the knife.
Plus, Nivola’s controversial take is being widely talked about outside La La Land’s elite. In January, a woman went viral on TikTok for slamming period drama actors for having “Botox and lip fillers.”
https://people-app.onelink.me/HNIa/kz7l4cuf
The video tackled the popular belief that historical bodies of work — think the film Nosferatu, the acclaimed Downtown Abbey or the Gladiator franchise — should accurately portray the beauty standard of the eras they take place in, which speculated cosmetic enhancements, she argued, make almost impossible.
Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
Sam Nivola at the Variety 2025 Power of Young Hollywood Party
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Elsewhere in his interview, Nivola weighed in on another hot topic — nepo babies. As the son of actors Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola, he admitted that he doesn’t “attribute much of my success” to his parents. “I feel proud that I’ve done it for myself, and sometimes in spite of them.”
“I didn’t get my dad’s agent to call up so-and-so,” he said of landing his first role in 2022’s White Noise alongside Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. Added Nivola, who booked the audition with help from his high school drama teacher, “I did it by myself. I didn’t want to give anyone an excuse to be able to say that anything I’ve achieved has been because of anyone other than me. And I’m proud of that.”
Read the original article on People
