While rarely considered, eyebrows are an essential feature for an unforgettable performance.
By Danielle Momoh
Collin Farrell and Barry Keoghan in The Banshees of Inisherin/ photo: Searchlight Pictures
Acting is all in the eyes– or so they say. They fill up with tears, widen in shock, crinkle at the corners when someone smiles. The camera frequently acts as the eyes, following characters around like an all seeing god. When a character looks into the eye (see what I mean?) of the camera, there’s an intense dynamic that feels like we are two fighters about to go toe to toe in a boxing ring. But when we drift our gaze a little further up--towards that elusive spot between the temples and the lashes-- we find something even more powerful: The eyebrows. Thick or thin, bleached or dyed, unified or tragically separated. These, more than the eyes, more than the voice or the gesture, are the key to acting. They express that imagined emotion till it feels as real as the world beyond the screen. They say eyes are the windows to the soul, but I say the eyebrow brings the soul into the real.
What is it about that space just above the lid? We tend to think of them as more of a fashion statement. As style shifts and tastes change, so does the brow. The wispiness of the 2000’s, the dreaded block brow of the 2010’s, the fluffy ‘bushy’ brow of today. The way they look can change your entire face but when it comes to acting, they are even more imperative.
Take the noteworthy shot of Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin whose famous brows bend into apostrophes. It is not just the litheness of his brow that intrigues audiences, though that is certainly part of it, but it is also the very look of them. The fuzzy caterpillars that frame Farrell’s handsome face transform an ordinary nice-looking face into something special. He’s now the ideal Irish lad, ready for a pint. From the quirk of one of those bad boys, you know he’s never had a problem picking up a girl. In Banshees, his eyebrows morph into a stand-in for his character. Unruly but in an endearing way, they have never faced the threat of a tweezer because Paidriac is a simple lad– what would he do with a tweezer? He has his donkey, his sister, Colm, his daily beer and that’s practically it. When he’s happy his eyebrows bounce on his face while he rambles along his village’s roads. When he's confused they almost obscure his eyes, he can't imagine a world that doesn't contain his simple pleasures– and in the film’s trudge into despair, his happy hairs settle into stillness.
Between too much brow and none at all, the latter carries just as much gravitas as the former. Swinging to the other end of the spectrum, one cannot talk about eyebrows and acting without talking about the internet’s favorite eyebrow-less star, Mia Goth. The young actor’s carriage of her eyebrowless-ness has skyrocketed her to her status as an indie-horror darling. Her big eyes peek over at us, coy, incensed, or terrified. She is always bracketed by her invisible brows, framing every look on her face with a vulnerability that simply couldn't be there if she had an intact set. In X, her flailing, coke-addicted character Maxine is too scatterbrained to have eyebrows. She’s trying to be a fucking star– what star do you know that looks like everyone else? She stares at the mirror and declares that she is a sex symbol. There is a blend of hilarity and a surety. Mia, with a squeaky Texan accent and childlike gaze, a sex symbol? Then your eyes stray away to the top of her lids. Huh. She’s just weird enough that she may be right. Her hunger is clear, nothing between us and her forehead, nothing to hide any part of her desperate expression. Every part of her is yearning to be on screen.
Mia Goth as Maxine Minks in X/ photo: A24
If you usually have a fully present pair, suddenly acting without eyebrows, while not impossible, is incredibly difficult. Just ask Robert Pattinson. Filming The Batman wasn't just challenging because of the weight of portraying one the most well known comic book characters was bearing down on Pattinson— he also had no access to the power of the eyebrow. Batman’s cowl not only covers up Pattison’s gorgeous nose, we see none of those ginger-adjacent brows. It is incredible that he could give such an amazing emo boy Bruce Wayne even though half of his acting is obscured. This eyebrowless performance actually enhances the loner facet of Batman, we don’t see his most expressive part of his face because he doesn’t want anyone to see his emotions. He has literal armor for his brows and metaphorical armor for his heart. Selina Kyle would not be as deeply curious about Batman’s real identity if the mask gave room for Pattinson's brow bone. If anything, Batman needs to have his brows hidden to make their appearance shocking when they’re finally revealed along with his true identity. He pulls off the cowl and there they are, scrunched down underneath that messy hair. There’s our angsty teenager trapped in the body of a superhero billionaire.
Robert Pattinson as The Batman/ photo: Warner Bros.
This may all seem a bit silly. Can eyebrows possibly be that essential to a memorable performance? Well, sure, a disembodied set of hairs won’t win any Oscars by themselves, but I truly believe that without those wriggly, unwaxed arches, Colin Farrell wouldn’t be Academy Award Nominee Colin Farrell. Don’t take my word for it, judge for yourself. Next time you're watching an actor up on screen, and you’re trying to discern their character, an emotion, a soul behind all the artifice, let your eyes drift away from theirs. Let your gaze wander around their face, stop at their lips, their cheeks, maybe even the ears, then rest for a while at the eyebrows. I promise you won't be disappointed.
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