QUOTE(Darkness Eternal @ Jun 13 2014, 05:21 AM)
*SNIP*
Appearance is nothing. Temporary, transient, ever changing.
Vin Diesel relies on his appearance to be intimidating, he is attached to it, and his sense of confidence and sanity is inexorably connected to it. If he starts showing signs of aging, muscle mass loss then he would no longer be the image he needs to be.
Jason Statham is the embodiment of cold, deep confidence. He started balding around his mid-twenties and although it bothered him at first, he learned to shrug it off. It wasn't what others thought of him, it was what he thought of himself.
He rejected all the notions of what a strong, masculine character 'should' be, and just simply became his idea of one. Once he stopped listening and started telling people how they should see him, through his attitude and demeanor, people stopped trying to tell him and started going with his notion of it.
If Vin gained fifty pounds he'd likely start wearing clothes that hid his body. If Statham gained fifty pounds he'd make a movie about being a dad in the suburbs barbecuing in a pair of swimming trunks in the backyard with his gut exposed in all it's glory. Then he'd singlehandedly fight off a clan of ninjas that came to kidnap his family, and as he stood over the final victim he'd give them that cold, hard stare he's mastered and tell him that he has a message for his boss.
Then, he'd snap his neck and say: "Nevermind. I'll tell him myself."
The audience would cheer as Statham's beer gut jiggled from the force, and Kate Upton would confess that she has a huge crush on him during an interview with Jimmy Fallon.
Confidence make the man, not the hair or clothes.
One of my former co-workers lost all his hair before he was 20 so he´s in the same situation. He makes up for it though by being an asshole to everyone he talks to! 