10 Actors Who Are UNRECOGNISABLE In Upcoming Horror Movies
7. Shirley Chen - Slanted
Alright, this one's really wild, even if it comes with a bit of an asterisk.
Slanted is a horror comedy starring Shirley Chen - who recently made a name for herself in last year's acclaimed drama Didi - as Joan Huang, a Chinese-American high-schooler who undergoes ethnic modification surgery to resemble a white woman in the hope of becoming prom queen.
The kooky rub here is that the post-surgery Joan - who now goes by the name "Jo Hunt" - switches out Shirley Chen for the very white, definitely not Asian actress McKenna Grace.
While some reviews from its SXSW premiere have pointed to the character transformation being comically implausible, it's straight out of the Face/Off school of "just roll with it."
Other critics compared the film favourably to The Substance, noting that filmmaker Amy Wang uses the off-kilter premise to explore racism in America in a unique way, while Chen and Grace were praised for delivering performances that feel consistent with the character they're both playing.