‘Uglies’ Author Scott Westerfeld Reacts to Criticism That Star Joey King Is Too Pretty: “There Is Textual Evidence That Tally Is Quite Pretty”

Millennial book lovers may remember Uglies , a best-selling series about a dystopian world where every human is considered “ugly” until they get beautifying plastic surgery at the age of 16. Now, nearly twenty years later, Scott Westerfeld’s popular young adult novel from 2006 is a feature film—coming to Netflix this Friday—starring Netflix favorite, Joey King, in the lead role of Tally Youngblood. But not everyone is happy with that casting decision.

“Joey King is too pretty to play Tallie [sic],” posted one X account.

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“I like how the ‘uglies’ are better looking than anyone that I know in real life,” reads one of the top-voted YouTube comments on the movie’s trailer.

“If joey king believes [she] is ugly than I don’t think any of us have a chance in this world,” another YouTuber commented.

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“it’s insane to just, you know, cast Joey King in this film and expect it to……..make sense,” another user posted on X .

In a recent interview with Decider, Uglies author Scott Westerfeld responded to those criticisms.

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“It’s the internet. I’ve seen all flavors of that remark, in both directions,” Westerfeld said, when asked about the critique. “As the author of the book, I’ll say this: There is some textual evidence that Tally is actually quite pretty, and she only thinks she is ugly.”

In fact, King, known for her starring roles in Netflix’s Kissing Booth movies, is an executive producer on the Uglies film and a self-declared “ huge fan ” of the book series. No doubt she is a key reason that the film—which has been in development since 2006, when 20th Century Fox purchased the rights to the book—finally got made. The movie is directed by McG and adapted by screenwriters Jacob Forman, Vanessa Taylor, and Whit Anderson. In addition to King, Uglies also stars Laverne Cox, Chase Stokes, Brianna Tju, and Keith Powers.

As many book fans—and Westerfeld will tell you—the world of Uglies isn’t about people who are actually ugly. It’s about people who perceive themselves as ugly. Westerfeld pointed to a part in the book where David, Tally’s love interest who is played by Powers in the film, tells Tally she’s beautiful.

“David is like, ‘You’re incredibly gorgeous,'” Westerfeld told Decider. “So in a weird way, it’s not even about that. It’s just about her expectations in the universe that she grew up in. Which, of course, is probably the same for many movie stars out there, who are incredibly gorgeous, as they get up every day and look at themselves and say, ‘Oh, I look like crap today.’ As we all do.”

The Uglies movie will begin streaming on Netflix this Friday, September 13.

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