Not your average six-pack

Since its release last weekend, Gore Verbinski’s new film A Cure for Wellness has been described as “way too weird to succeed” by the press. And for good reason. Yet somewhere along the interminable series of plot twists, each more disgusting than the last, something not so strange in itself struck me as surprising. In a scene where actor DeHaan finds himself shirtless, he reveals a belly I didn’t expect to see. In a word, it looks normal.

I immediately felt bad: Were my expectations of male beauty really that unrealistic? I started to reflect on the real men in my life and soon felt better: only in films do I seem to expect six-pack abs (no offence to the beautiful men of my life).

But why did DeHaan’s belly surprise me so? His ghostly pale skin and blue eyes as well as his measured performance do make him fascinating to look at, so why couldn’t these features compensate for his unimpressive abdomen?

Maybe Hollywood must be blamed in the end – but for more particular industry-related reasons, which end up handicapping the whole film. DeHaan isn’t just any Hollywood actor: young, white, and not yet that famous, he still hasn’t established himself as leading man material in that crowded industry where the turnover is high and not everyone can cut it with the majors. And this isn’t just any heroic leading-man part: as the crazy doctors in the film keep saying, he is “not a well man,” which could partly explain his imperfect body. Such a role doesn’t offer DeHaan the usual framework for assimilation into Hollywood. He isn’t allowed to be sexy, only weird-looking, and this ends up making the film ever stranger.

However silly this tentative explanation may sound – DeHaan’s belly is odd because he’s not yet a star and we expect him to be toned until he is one – it reveals that the question of representation in Hollywood isn’t simply a matter of realism versus escapism. The established roads to stardom mean that certain performances or entire films may not manage to connect with their audience. DeHaan’s persona doesn’t have that movie star shine yet, and Hollywood has accustomed us to find that spark primarily in the sculpted muscles of young actors. Consequently – and although I will make a conscious effort not to let Hollywood dictate my experience – however great DeHaan’s performance in A Cure for Wellness, it’s his belly that I will probably remember most.