Why Emmy Nominee Steve Buscemi Refuses to ‘Fix’ His Teeth

Chew on this.

Steve Buscemi just earned a lead actor Emmy nomination for his role as mobster Nucky Johnson on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, which scored 18 nominations overall Thursday. But he says he’d never have gotten to where he is now if he’d heeded early advice to change his smile.

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“I’ve had dentists who have wanted to help me out, but I say, ‘You know, I won’t work again if you fix my teeth,'” Buscemi, who also won a Golden Globe last year for the role, said during The Hollywood Reporter’s recent drama actors roundtable.

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Buscemi isn’t the only one who has refused to correct his pearly whites.

True Blood star Anna Paquin is often questioned about her choppers. “I find it rude when someone asks me why I never ‘fixed’ the gap in my teeth!” she recently told Us Weekly. Blood was just nominated for four Emmys.

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Kirsten Dunst admits she’s faced pressure to straighten up her teeth, even from her mom.  “That’s one of the things I like about me. Messed-up teeth are so sexy,” she once told InStyle. The actress was just 13 when she was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Interview With the Vampire in 1995; more recently, she was voted best actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia.

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Singer Jewel landed her first film role, in 1999’s Ride With the Devil, thanks to her crooked grin — even though she had no acting experience. “The main reason Ang wanted me was my teeth,” she told the U.K. Observer of director Ang Lee. “My character grew up lower-class, working the earth with oxen, ploughing, stuff like that.”

When asked by MTV News why she never fixed them shortly after the movie was released, she said, “I just never had the money before and now I don’t have the time.”

Miley Cyrus continues acting despite her lower teeth not lining up.

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“I like these crooked. I love my teeth,” she told Elle magazine in July 2009, adding that her then-Hannah Montana co-star and dad Billy Ray Cyrus, “won’t let me fix my teeth or cut my hair.”