"In Hollywood, if you're good looking, tall, have OK teeth and nice skin, the odds of being successful are great. If you're short and fat, it's a different story. But as long as you look like a leading man type, half your job is done already"
About this Quote
The phrase “half your job is done already” exposes the industry’s unspoken math. Acting becomes the second audition. Before the craft, there’s the packaging - height, leanness, symmetry - traits read as authority, romance, and “bankability” because the camera and the market have been trained to want them. Corbett frames it as probability (“odds”), which is both honest and insulating: he’s not blaming individual casting directors so much as naming a pipeline where appearance is a credential.
The subtext has a sting of self-awareness. As a tall, traditionally handsome actor who often played the dependable love interest, Corbett isn’t posing as an outsider throwing rocks; he’s admitting the water he swam in. That makes the critique sharper, not softer. He’s pointing to a hierarchy of bodies that’s so normalized it can be stated plainly - and that plainness is what makes it uncomfortable. The joke isn’t really about short, fat people. It’s about how quickly Hollywood decides who gets to be seen as a “leading man” at all.
Quote Details
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Corbett, John. (2026, February 17). In Hollywood, if you're good looking, tall, have OK teeth and nice skin, the odds of being successful are great. If you're short and fat, it's a different story. But as long as you look like a leading man type, half your job is done already. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-hollywood-if-youre-good-looking-tall-have-ok-118262/
Chicago Style
Corbett, John. "In Hollywood, if you're good looking, tall, have OK teeth and nice skin, the odds of being successful are great. If you're short and fat, it's a different story. But as long as you look like a leading man type, half your job is done already." FixQuotes. February 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-hollywood-if-youre-good-looking-tall-have-ok-118262/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"In Hollywood, if you're good looking, tall, have OK teeth and nice skin, the odds of being successful are great. If you're short and fat, it's a different story. But as long as you look like a leading man type, half your job is done already." FixQuotes, 17 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/in-hollywood-if-youre-good-looking-tall-have-ok-118262/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.
