6. Zoe Wanamaker in The End of the World and New Earth
Zoe Wanamaker is damn good at playing utter psychopaths even in her more comedic roles, and is pretty close to perfect as Lady Cassandra OBrien, a fascinating, scheming, selfish and unforgettable baddie whose very existence is both a satire of the consequences of cosmetic surgery and a dark prediction of where it may be heading. (Blood bleaching, really?) While the idea of someone so obsessed with losing weight they go to the trouble of having their skin stretched across a steel frame is a bit extreme, Wanamaker makes us believe every moment of it with her casual, almost proud attitude towards her lifestyle, one of socialism, multiple marriages and scalpel after scalpel after scalpel, sort of a Jocelyn Wildenstein character, you could say someone who barely seems to notice how horrific they have made themselves and how little substance is left of them. While Roses correct assessment that the most humane parts of her got chucked in the bin was mostly referring to her physical body slowly breaking down, there is also the inescapable reality that this also refers to her mind and personality becoming more corrupt and superficial with every operation. Contrastingly, I think the scene that really cements Wanamakers place on the list is the scene when she, in the dying body of the only man who could ever love her in her eventual state (actor Sean Gallagher), is given the chance to return to herself as a human (Wanamaker) and explain just how beautiful she really is/was. This is something I think every surgery-addict secretly wants to do go back in time and say to their old self You really dont need it. Wanamaker is brilliant, its as simple as that.