18.10.2026 09:40
Researchers from Atatürk and Iğdır universities examined the 200 highest-rated films on IMDb. It was determined that 51.9 percent of lead actors in English-language films have blue eyes, while in others brown-eyed actors stand out with 75 percent.
Erzurum Atatürk University Faculty of Letters Department of Philosophy master's student Aydın Perktaş and Iğdır University Faculty of Science and Letters faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sait Yıldırım examined the 200 highest-rated films on IMDb. In the study, it was determined that 51.9% of lead actors in English-language films had blue eyes. In other productions, it was found that brown-eyed actors stood out at 75%.
Atatürk University Faculty of Letters Department of Philosophy master's student Aydın Perktaş and Iğdır University Faculty of Science and Letters faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sait Yıldırım conducted research on blue-eyed lead actors and their representation rates in cinema. In the study lasting about 3 months, 200 films with the highest IMDb ratings—160 in English and 40 in other languages—were examined sociologically in terms of their lead actors. The study investigated whether eye color stands out in popular cinema merely as a biological feature or gains meaning through aesthetic perceptions and cultural representations.
In the study, it was determined that 45.5% of lead actors in the examined films had blue eyes and 35.5% had brown eyes. It was found that the rate of green- and hazel-eyed actors remained at lower levels. It was assessed that the high representation of blue-eyed actors in popular cinema may be related to cultural perceptions of beauty.
BLUE-EYE RATE IN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILMS IS 51.9%
One of the striking results of the study was the relationship between film language and lead actors' eye color. In the 160 English-language films examined, the rate of blue-eyed lead actors was determined as 51.9%, while in the 40 non-English-language films this rate remained at 20%. In non-English-language films, the rate of brown-eyed lead actors was found to be 75%.
In the study, it was determined that 93.5% of lead characters in the films were male and 6.5% were female actors. The average height of lead actors was found to be 1.80 meters for men and 1.66 meters for women.
'BLUE EYES CAN TURN INTO A CULTURAL CODE OF BEAUTY'
Iğdır University Faculty of Science and Letters faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sait Yıldırım reported that heroes prominent in cinema gain visibility in different areas of society through advertisements, posters, magazines and other cultural media. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yıldırım explained that studies have determined that brown eyes are the most common at approximately 70-80%, blue eyes at approximately 8-10%, hazel eyes at 5%, amber eyes at 5%, gray eyes at 3%, and green eyes at approximately 2%. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yıldırım said, "Physical attractiveness and perceptions of beauty are shaped through aesthetics and turn into a general cultural code. In cinema, these shared codes are reorganized in a way that brings a certain face, expression and eye type to the fore. At this stage, eye color, while being a biological feature, is a bodily quality on which a long accumulation of cultural meaning rests. Looking at the distribution of eye color, it is seen that light-colored eyes are concentrated in populations of European origin, while brown tones are distinctly dominant worldwide."
'CAN BE ASSOCIATED WITH ATTRACTIVENESS'
Noting that the cultural signification of eye color is not limited to contemporary media representations, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sait Yıldırım said the following:
"In historical and anthropological contexts, light-colored eyes are also seen to be associated with attention-grabbing, difference and attractiveness. It is stated that hair and eye color vary extraordinarily in Northern and Eastern Europe; blue, gray, hazel and green eye colors form a distinct diversity alongside brown in this geography. This diversity is explained within the framework of the advantage of rare colors, showing that historically light-colored eyes have gained meaning not only as a biological feature but also as a phenotype associated with noticeability and attractiveness. Therefore, the intensity of blue-eyed lead representations in popular cinema can be associated with the recirculation within visual culture of the blue-eye beauty stereotype already established in the audience's mind, rather than with a biological reality of attractiveness."