Three Best Actress Oscar Nominees Undergo Major Makeovers in Upcoming Movies

With the Oscars just around the corner, the upcoming projects of some of the nominees will likely spark some interest among moviegoers; three of the Best Actress nominees have some of the most interesting upcoming movies in the works.

While Natalie Portman's character in the "Hesher" trailer that recently hit the web has caused a minor sensation, a pair of oversized '80s glasses, mom jeans, and a dorky sweater doesn't quite equal the major transformation she underwent for "Black Swan." However, some of her fellow Best Actress Oscar nominees are about to undergo movie makeovers just as extreme as her ballerina character.

"Winter's Bone" star Jennifer Lawrence is trading her backwoods accent for a lot of blue body paint as mutant chameleon Mystique in "X-Men: First Class." The actress described the process of getting painted blue and covered with scales as taking around six hours, and evidently the length isn't the only difficult part of her transformation; she's even dubbed the smelly process "Mystink." Fans can see the actress become almost unrecognizable in the comic book movie on June 3, 2011.

While it's unlikely that Lawrence's next movie role will garner any Oscar buzz, fellow nominee Nicole Kidman could have another nomination in her future with her role in "The Danish Girl." The film that's set to start shooting this summer focuses on the life of the world's first sex-change patient. She'll be playing Einar Wegener, a male Danish artist from the 1930s who undergoes a male-to-female sex change operation. Rachel Weisz is set to play Wegener's wife. If Kidman can convincingly pull off playing a man, it's hard to see how the "Rabbit Hole" star can be beat in a future Oscars competition.

Her fellow Best Actress nominee Michelle Williams is also going to have to work hard to convince audiences in one of her upcoming movies. The "Blue Valentine" star has been handed the monumental task of portraying actress Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn," which focuses on a week the actress took off from work to spend time being escorted around Britain by an assistant. If she can pull off portraying an American icon, she could see another Oscar nomination next year (right now the movie is set to be released sometime later this year).

So while these Best Actress nominees underwent major transformations to play their award-worthy characters, they're really trying to make themselves unrecognizable for these future movie roles. And it's this Mystique-like ability to become someone completely different that makes actresses like Jennifer Lawrence, Nicole Kidman, and Michelle Williams truly great.