Je ne sais quoi
Becoming a celebrity requires hard work, determination, and a little bit of that thing you can only say in French.
Sometimes it takes something a little extra to set you a part. This month, ilumin had fun finding stories about celebrities who see things a little differently! Check out our favorite stars with eyes worth a second look!
Distichiasis
With the right eye shadow tones, color contacts, and false eyelashes, we can all look just as glamorous as Elizabeth Taylor looked when she woke up in the morning.
Thanks to a slight genetic mutation, the star was born with striking violet eyes. While they are visually significantly different from any other eye color, the melanin which causes the violet hue is actually nearly identical to the amount of melanin that causes blue eyes.
In addition to her unique eye tone, she was born with distichiasis, a rare condition which results in a second row of eyelashes. For many, this condition can cause discomfort, as the second row often grows too close to the eye, and often rubs or irritates the eye. Taylor reported that she never had any issues with her luxurious lashes, and rode them all the way to the red carpet.
Heterochromia
Affecting approximately 6 in every 1,000 people, Heterochromia comes in a spectrum. The condition results in two separately hued eyes, and could be as mild as a blue freckle in a brown eye, or a full green eye opposite its hazel counterpart. In looking at affected celebrities, you’ll see a wide range of severity in the condition.
- Mila Kunis – Mila’s condition is actually caused by a cataract she experienced and had treated in recent years. She lived for years blind in one eye, until a painless procedure could restore her vision. Her specific condition, chronic iritis, resulted in one partially green and one dark brown eye.
- Kate Bosworth – Known well for her one bright blue eye, and her other half-blue, half-hazel eye, Kate has embraced her unique gaze throughout her career.
- Jonathon Rhys Meyers and Henry Cavill – They played best friends King Henry the VIII and Charles Brandon in The Tudors, but the two have one other unique bond. Both experiencing the disorder to varying degrees, each is a member of the Heterochromia Club!
- Christopher Walken – Are Walken’s multi-colored eyes the source of his strange charisma? The world may never know…
- Dan Akroyd – The funny man with a sincere gaze has captured hearts for decades, and catches our eye with his, which are green and brown, respectively.
- Bill Pullman – Most of us swooned over Lonestar, President Whitmore, Dr. Harvey. Those icy blue eyes…. Er. Wait. Was one of his eyes always half brown? Yes. Yes it was.
Anisocoria
For years, fans of David Bowie operated under the assumption that the other-worldly musician fit in the above category, but Bowie didn’t have heterochromia.
David Bowie was born with light blue eyes, and his eyes remained thus until the day they closed. His unique stare was the result of love.
Just kidding, it was only a crush. In his early teen years, Bowie found himself with a romantic rival over a classmate. Her other suitor decided to settle things with a punch to Bowie’s eye, leaving the pupil permanently dilated.
Traumatic Cataract
Frances Conroy enjoyed a long, peaceful career starring most notably as the matriarch in Six Feet Under. But when American Horror Story casting directors learned that Conroy had been wearing colored lenses to hide a certain unique feature, they knew they had a star.
Conroy suffered a traumatic injury after a car accident many years ago. Although surgery was able to restore her vision, nothing could be done about the discoloration that remained. This one of a kind gaze resulted in her being cast as Moira, and launching her into horror history.
Strabismus
There are endless lyrics one could write about staring into their partner’s eye. Ed Sheeran has the ability to look into two separate eyes at once! A birthmark on his eye resulted in the star suffering glaucoma. To spare his vision, he made the decision to have the birth mark laser removed, which left him with a lazy eye.
She has always been known as “The body”, but Heidi Klum has a face that could make you forget she even has legs. A closer examination reveals that she, too, suffers strabismus.
Ptosis
In interviews, you’ll often hear them refer to it as having a “wonky” eye. Many will state that their ptosis is more or less prevalent depending on how tired they are, which is very common among sufferers. We aren’t going to point any fingers, but while some of these stars were born with the common malady, others developed it as a result of botched surgeries. In any case, Ptosis, or drooping eyelid, can be treated with Blepharoplasty right here at ilumin!
Let’s just run this like a list of credits with no assumptions made about cause, shall we? Here we go.
Forest Whitaker
Michelle Obama
Selena Gomez
Teri Hatcher
Tegan Quinn
Paris Hilton
Gary Busey
Shannen Doherty
Not all celebrities have opted to squint-and-bear-it. The following stars opted to undergo Blepharoplasty to restore their youthful appearance and full eyesight:
Cameron Diaz
Tom Cruise
Bono
Renee Zellweger
Catherine Zeta Jones
Charlize Theron
George Clooney
Al Pacino
Tina Turner
Paul McCartney
Revision surgery isn’t exclusively for the stars, but for anyone looking to broaden their view of the world. Give your ilumin team a call to schedule your consultation today!
You’ll find that while some of your favorite stars have unique features with hard-to-pronounce names, each of the more than 14 billion eyes on the planet are important, special, and see the world in a way all their own.
We can’t bring better vision to everyone one of them, but we would love to start with yours!
