July 22, 2026 | Facelift
Last month a patient dropped her phone onto my desk. On the screen, the viral old-versus-new comparison of the Devil Wears Prada cast, 2006 on the left, a recent red carpet shot on the right, with the question half the internet was asking. How do they look like that?
Funny timing. I had just been interviewed on that exact subject by Cassidy Morrison, the Daily Mail’s health features editor, for a piece reading the cast’s faces that ran this past May. This post is the exam-room version of that conversation, with the anatomy the print piece did not have room for.
First, What a Photo Read Actually Is
I have operated on exactly zero members of this cast. Reading a face from photographs uses pattern recognition and knowledge of aging patterns; it is the exact same process that helps me determine, across the desk, whether a jawline has descended or a shadow points to volume loss beneath the surface. No diagnosis is possible without an exam, and none is offered here.
A well done photo read is a teaching tool. Graceful aging usually comes about through several specific, identifiable decisions. Here are the ones I believe I can see.
The Brow: Where Anne Hathaway’s Read Begins
Start at the lateral tails, the outside portion of the eyebrows. In a brow in its 40s, the lateral tail naturally drops, losing height. Hathaway’s eyebrows now lift in their lateral tails, higher and more open than they sat in 2006. No normal process ages the outside of the brow upward.
A procedure can. An endoscopic brow lift, where the surgeon lifts and repositions the forehead tissues under the skin through small hidden incisions using a tiny camera, is one route. A ponytail lift, the newer approach I trained in, pulls the lateral brow and midface up through even more limited incisions, mimicking the lift that occurs when hair is pulled tightly into a high ponytail. Her open lateral brow is consistent with either one.
Also consider the areas below. Her jawline is more sharply defined and her chin sits forward of its former position. That kind of change is best achieved through placement of a small solid silicone chin implant over the chin bone. Coupled with that might be some buccal fat removal in the mid cheek to reduce round fullness there, making the face read thinner and more angular. It is likely a bit of Botox in strategic areas, some hyaluronic acid filler to replenish volume, and laser resurfacing have played roles too. The overall impression: naturally well preserved rather than cosmetically altered, and that delicate balance tells a discerning observer that care was exercised at every step.
The Lower Face: Meryl Streep and the Deep Plane Read
One word comes to mind with Streep: relaxed. Her chin and jawline are more defined than we would typically expect in a woman well into her 70s, but nothing appears stretched or pulled. Her neck still shows prominent platysmal bands, the vertical bands of the neck muscle that grow visible with age. Her face still moves.
That presentation looks like a deep plane facelift done about five to seven years ago, fully settled now, kept up with minimal Botox and consistent dermatological work. In a deep plane lift the surgeon operates below the SMAS, the sheet of muscle and fascia that supports the face, releases it from its ligaments, and moves that whole layer upward; the skin follows tension-free because it is released as well. Back in the day the only facelifts were skin-only. You pulled just the skin tight and left the muscle and fascia as they were. The windblown look and the relatively short-lived results are why those lifts failed.
She still carries her neck bands, and I use those as an example with patients. When you try to fix everything on a face, the result becomes an expressionless face. Streep illustrates better than anybody how holding back is the key to keeping one.
The Restraint Reads: Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci
Emily Blunt is the least tweaked on the list. Preserved into her 40s by tweakments, modest filler, maybe a brow lift performed endoscopically, and excellent, well-managed skin care. Stanley Tucci, on the other hand, has shown no signs of undergoing any form of facelift, eyelid surgery, or injectables whatsoever. He is truly the best example in the cast of somebody who chooses to age naturally, and on purpose.
The comparison illustrates something I repeat constantly. The least tweaked appearance is not usually the result of one major procedure. It is the product of decades of sun protection, conservative treatment choices, and meticulous routine maintenance. I build exactly that plan with patients just as often as I plan surgery.
What Procedure Fits Who
Brow lifts benefit patients whose lateral brow sags low enough to crowd the upper eyelid, generally people bothered by looking tired or stern when they feel neither. Chin implants improve the profile for patients with an underdeveloped or recessed chin. Buccal fat removal suits a particular facial shape with prominent fullness in the cheeks and is generally a poor choice for naturally slender faces, which only hollow further as they age. Deep plane facelifts suit moderate to significant sagging in the jowls and neck, typically from the mid 40s onward.
And forgoing surgery for now, the Blunt and Tucci route, suits anyone whose concerns still center on skin quality rather than structure. The proper order matters much more than any individual procedure on this list.
Training Behind the Read
I am double board-certified, fellowship trained at the Mayo Clinic, and I teach as a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. For these particular techniques I took the Ponytail Academy’s intermediate course in Pittsburgh and its advanced course in Santa Monica. Castle Connolly has named me a Top Doctor thirteen consecutive years now. The ability to read a face confidently, in a photograph or in person, is built on working on faces every single week.
Ready to Talk?
Bring your own side by side to a consultation. Sometimes the appropriate answer involves surgery; often the correct option is simpler than you think. Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online at agulloplasticsurgery.com. Follow along at @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
See the editorial version of this read in my companion piece on Dr. WorldWide.
