Kate Bosworth is one of the most unusual women in Hollywood, starting with the fact that she was accepted to study at Princeton. The brainy blonde actress has defied all kinds of stereotypes by rejecting typical “cheerleading” roles and going for more action-packed work (yes, she did do a bunch of her own stunt scenes in Superman Returns). As gnarly as that all sounds, Ms. Bosworth has more than just talent to set her apart; she has a unique physical difference as well. The actress famously has one hazel eye and one blue one.
Now, some fans are wondering what causes Ms. Bosworth’s unique look. Why don’t her eyes “match” and how can those of us back home replicate this totally captivating style? We’ve done some digging into the actress’ medical condition to understand the reason behind her mysterious gaze.
Hollywood Through Color Contacts
Ms. Bosworth’s mismatched eyes are totally natural and caused by a condition called heterochromia iridis, according to an in-depth report by Insider. In her case, this means that one of her eyes is half brown and half blue. The other one is blue. Totally stunning, but bad news for those of us who want to replicate the look. Ms. Bosworth’s multi-colored eye makes it way harder for us to get a pair of decent color contacts to replicate her look.
Nonetheless, the actress has been stuck wearing color contacts throughout her entire career. And not because she necessarily wanted to. In fact, Ms. Bosworth ‘evened out’ her eye color at the request of various directors, who didn’t think her look fit their movies. The actress told The Sunday Morning Herald that this kind of negative attitude had affected her acting appearances for a decade.
An Extraordinary Change
Luckily for Ms. Bosworth, she eventually met a casting director who ‘got’ her look. When she went to Australia to film Superman Returns, the actress met Brian Singer, who told her to appear in the movie with her own natural eyes. “One of the first things I had to do when I got to Australia was a screen test for my eyes with a wig and a costume,” Ms. Bosworth told the outlet, “just to see if Bryan wanted to keep them the way they are.”
The director’s decision didn’t just impact the way that the character Lois Lane is perceived; it also created visibility for folks with heterochromia iridis (no pun intended). One of the coolest results of Ms. Bosworth’s role has been the fabrication of dolls with mismatched eyes. “So now the Lois Lane dolls have different colored eyes, which is strange,” mused the actress in her interview.
Will Ms. Bosworth continue to wear color contacts in movies moving forward? It’s still too early to tell. But we hope that the Lois Lane dolls spark joy in all the little girls who look a tiny bit different.