Twenty People Who've Gotten
Sexier With Age

Featuring Jon Stewart, Matthew Fox, Marisa Tomei, and more.

By Nerve Editors

20) Laura Dern

The first time we saw Blue Velvet, we thought Laura Dern was laughably old to be playing a high-school student. Actually, she was eighteen at the time, but her long face and old-lady hair gave her the look of a thirtysomething. Since then, she's gotten a better stylist and developed the kind of queenly allure you'll never get from a teenager in mom jeans. — Peter Smith

19) David Byrne

Byrne was a good-looking guy in the Talking Heads days, but his jumpy, Norman Bates-styled persona wasn't exactly a turn-on. He's become a thoughtful, silver-haired, surprisingly relaxed elder statesman, to the benefit of sexiness enthusiasts everywhere. — P.S.

18) Naomi Watts

There's a good chance that you might not even realize Naomi Watts in 1995's Tank Girl. She's so covered up by unflattering outfits and meh-brown hair that you'd think she's a different person entirely. But just a few years later, with her unforgettably erotic and jarring performance in David Lynch's Mullhulland Dr. forever fixed in our memories, her beauty is impossible to miss, no matter how disturbing a role she's playing. — James Brady Ryan

17) Ben Stiller

Lots of men were awkward-looking earlier in their careers, but only one starred in a film whose central joke was how little he looks like a male model. And Zoolander was a full decade after he and his towering forehead and protruding ears lost out to Ethan Hawke in Reality Bites. Fortunately, with a dash of salt-and-pepper in his hair and a little leftover bulk from Tropic Thunder, he's actually started to look pretty good. — Ben Reininga

16) Jeanne Tripplehorn

If we had to choose among Bill Paxton's Big Love wives, we'd look past Chloë Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin, and go straight towards the forty-six-year-old Tripplehorn. As first wife Barb, Tripplehorn has a healthy maturity far sexier than her mousy look from older pictures like, uh, Waterworld. — Josh Kurp

15) Matthew Fox

Not only is the word "fox" right there in the name, but the shaggy-maned slacker from Party of Five has aged like cheddar into the man of all men on Lost. The guy beats up Others, saves lives, and time travels, all while maintaining his rugged (yet boyish) good looks and the affection of Evangeline Lilly. Given the choice, we'd definitely rather be stuck on a desert island with Lost Fox than with Party of Five Fox. — Ryan Lavalette

14) Kim Cattrall

At thirty, she was a pretty brunette who'd been in a few TV shows and Big Trouble in Little China. At fifty, she's practically synonymous with lasciviousness. Samantha notoriously dated a twentysomething waiter; not only would America not mind if Kim Cattrall did the same, we kind of expect her to. — B.R.

13) Justin Timberlake

By far the youngest person on this list, Timberlake might write off his early unsexiness as an awkward phase, yet he was lusted after by legions of fans even in those most awkward of years. Time has not treated his *NSYNC look well. (A perm? Really?) But improbably, Timberlake's solo career revealed him to be an actual talent, and his presumed new stylist revealed him to be an actual hottie. — J.R.

12) Lauren Graham

As Shelly on Caroline in the City, Lauren Graham sported bad hair and mom jeans. Luckily, she ditched that 'do, moved to Stars Hollow, and became Lorelai Gilmore. In later seasons of Gilmore Girls, as her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) was changing from a teenager into an adult herself, Graham, fifteen years older, still looked more attractive. — J.K.

11) Will Smith

We all grew up with Will in Fresh Prince, but few of us ever thought about him at night. It took a decade, a haircut, and the end of a bad hip-hop career for him finally to grow into those ears and start turning heads. — B.R.

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