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At the close of every year, Decider writers are asked to rank their top 10 of the year. It’s supposed to be a fun exercise for us in the midst of holiday-related stress and incessant end-of-year blurbs. However I’ve only ever had fun once writing this list. That was last year, when I stupidly focused on my “10 Most Important Male Body Parts of 2020.” So you know what? This year I will follow my bliss and do it all over again! Gather round, gentle readers, for I’m about to reveal which handsome actors and charming fictional characters caught my eye in 2021.
The thing about this list is it’s not just about being horny on main. I mean, I did crush on each and every one of these men in some capacity over the last twelve months, but this list is about more than just physical appearance. Film and television are visual storytelling devices. How a person looks does matter in the context of the story. A glance can communicate anger, a change in posture a shifting power dynamic. Each of the male body parts on this list didn’t just catch my eye in an aesthetic way, but represented something deeper. At least that’s what I’m trying to tell myself to justify the existence of this list.
From Daniel Henney’s foolishly hot V Cut in The Wheel of Time on Prime Video to Oscar Isaac’s consistently stripped down body of work, here are the 10 most important male body parts of 2021….
Sam Heughan's Scottish Skinny-Dipping Bum in 'Men in Kilts'
I see a lot of butts as a TV critic. Ever since NYPD Blue broke the bum barrier by showing Dennis Franz’s honestly well-rounded rear on network TV in the ’90s, butts have become the safe way for a show to broadcast, “Ooo, we’re sexy and edgy and cool!” Coincidentally there have been a lot of good butts on TV this year, but the first one to really make a literal splash for me was Sam Heughan’s skinny-dipping posterior in Men in Kilts Episode 2.
Men in Kilts is a reality show where Outlander hottie Sam Heughan travels with former co-star Graham McTavish. In Episode 2, a cocky Heughan makes a bet that whoever comes up short in a series of Scottish-themed sporting competitions has to run buck naked into the frigid sea.
Now I’ve seen Heughan’s rump before. Indeed he’s shown it many times as Jamie Fraser. But this was not in character, but happening in real life. There was a glee in the moment. A silliness. A pale moon that stood in testament to Heughan’s humanity. I loved it.
Ben Barnes's Hungry Mouth in 'Shadow and Bone'
There’s been this ubiquitous phrase on the internet in 2021: “They understood the assignment.” It’s meant to be a cheeky way of saying someone nailed it. But in the context of sweeping YA storytelling, it’s actually hard to find actors who really understood the assignment of playing a bad boy archetype quite like Ben Barnes did in Netflix’s Shadow and Bone.
Barnes played General Kirigin, aka The Darkling. At first he is introduced as a lonesome general, obsessed with young Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) because her ability to control light could save their world from a blight-covered scar on the land called the Fold. He clearly is using the younger woman’s attraction to him as a tool. However Barnes imbues the Darkling with a loneliness of his own. No matter how bad this bad boy gets, nothing will stop us from swooning over the way he kisses Alina. Ben Barnes’s mouth basically tries to devour his co-star’s and for that, I have to give it up for Mr. Mouth. Good kissing, Ben Barnes’s mouth!
P.S. The boyish smile is good, too!
Brett Goldstein’s Expressive Eyebrows in 'Ted Lasso'
I don’t often consider eyebrows. They have to be really impressive to catch my attention and Brett Goldstein has the finest eyebrows on a man today.
Goldstein plays Roy Kent, a growly retired soccer player, in Apple TV+’s hit Ted Lasso. Roy is intimidating. Roy is profane. Roy is the series’s most swoon-worthy dude thanks to his love of girlfriend Keeley (Juno Temple) and devotion to his niece. Goldstein is able to flit between Roy’s moods with the help of his expressive eyebrows. Sure, folks might zero in on the deep roar of his voice or his general physicality, but for my money, Goldstein’s eyebrows are it.
Manny Jacinto's Spiritually-Distracting Cheekbones in 'Nine Perfect Strangers'
Nine Perfect Strangers was a show chock-full of beautiful people, but one man stood apart in terms of sheer physical perfection. I’m talking about Manny Jacinto.
Jacinto first charmed us all in The Good Place — “Bortles!” — but his post-comedy work has us completely under his spell. In Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, Jacinto plays Yao. At first it seems that Yao is just another employee at the wellness retreat Tranquillum, but it’s soon obvious that he’s much more than that.
Jacinto’s character is sharp, sly, and definitely DTF. All of that seems to be visually represented by the actor’s own fabulous cheekbones. Have you ever seen such insidiously handsome bone structure?
Dev Patel’s Noble Neck in 'The Green Knight'
Thanks to the pandemic pushing the theatrical release schedule back, Dev Patel has made this list two years in a row for his physical presence in The Green Knight. David Lowery’s retelling of the classic poem was one of my most-anticipated films of 2020 and it wound up being my favorite of 2021. Everything about this movie is strange, sexy, and esoteric in the best way. Everything about this movie works because Dev Patel’s Gawain sticks his literal and metaphoric neck out.
Putting aside the fact that, yes, Patel has a very shapely long neck, the character’s fate comes down to whether or not he’ll allow the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) to return a killing blow. Patel’s neck is the thing everything rests on. And, yeah, it’s nice to look at, too.
Tony Leung's Ferocious Forearms in 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'
Tony Leung has been smoldering his way through films for years, but 2021 was the year he brought his intoxicating presence to the MCU. Leung played Wenwu, the super villain-turned-happily married family man-turned-vengeful widowed villain in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
A key part of the story is that Wenwu is an immortal warrior gifted super powers thanks to ten “rings” he wears around his forearms. This means that the film took its time to linger on Tony Leung’s wrists in fight scenes and quiet moments. I honestly still haven’t recovered from the swagger Wenwu evokes walking into a den of gangsters, suit jacket sleeves pushed up to show that the gloves are off and the ten rings are back on.
Shang-Chi introduced the mainstream American movie audience to the glory that is Tony Leung and he entered our hearts and minds wrists-first.
On a related note: WATCH CHUNGKING EXPRESS!!
Lee Pace’s God-like Abs in 'Foundation'
I’ve already written at length about the power and the glory of Lee Pace’s arms in Apple TV+’s Foundation, but if I’m being honest, it was the actor’s abs that really stayed with me.
In Episode 8 of Foundation, Pace’s Emperor Cleon is stripped of his self-healing nano tech, safety shield, and usual imposing wardrobe. He is volunteering to humble himself on a religious pilgrimage called the Spiral and in the process becomes what I have dubbed “Lawrence of Abs-rabia.” Pace literally looks like a god made flesh, which is apt since his character is a power-mad clone convinced he basically is a god.
Pace’s physicality in this scene is so important, as Clean starts the spiral looking like a deity — a porn-tastic Christ, if you will — and ends bloodied, blistered, and alone.
Kayvan Novak’s "Human" Hair in 'What We Do In The Shadows'
When I told a co-worker that I was writing about Kayvan Novak’s hair in FX on Hulu’s What We Do in the Shadows, they misunderstood me and thought I was devoting precious blurb space to Nandor’s usual long locks. Don’t get me wrong, I like that vampire’s Samson-like coif. What I loved is the fluffy, “The Rachel”-esque ‘do that Nandor adopted in the stand out episode “Wellness Center.”
What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 8 is a huge turning point for Nandor, as he expresses his discontent with being a vampire and plays at being a defanged human. Novak delivers some of the best physical comedy of his career, all while communicating the deep depression that’s precipitating these choices. The hair is emblematic of all this. The hair is key.
Oscar Isaac’s Whole Dang Body in ‘Dune’ and ‘Scenes from a Marriage’
It was a good year to be an Oscar Isaac fan. The Juilliard-trained actor reprised his voice work as Gomez Addams, teased his turn as tortured MCU hero Moon Knight, played the greatest sci-fi daddy in Dune, and bore way more than just his soul in HBO’s Scenes from a Marriage. Yeah, the dude went full frontal — in an emotional, naturalistic, and artistic way! — but really what’s more important is how Isaac gave us his all. He knew when a scene demanded a literally naked vulnerability and when being stripped down was just a metaphor for power dynamics (as in Dune).
Bravo to Oscar Isaac’s 2021 overall body of work. (And his overall body.)
Daniel Henney's Swoon-worthy V Cut in 'The Wheel of Time'
Like many of the actors on this list, The Wheel of Time star Daniel Henney is in impeccable physical shape. It’s just a truth that we have to put out there. The man is hot. That said, I was honestly bowled over, Beatlemania-style, when I saw him with his shirt off in The Wheel of Time Episode 7. As soon as I saw his character, Lan, in such a state of undress — with that V cut emphasized by the way his waistband fell on his hips — I knew what was about to go down. Lan and Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) were going to consummate their slow-burning romance way earlier in the show than in the Robert Jordan books. I was squealing like a tween girl at her first boy band concert.
The thing about The Wheel of Time is that these books have eaten up my brain since late May and the Amazon show has been my favorite show to cover all year. My favorite romance in the books is, duh, Lan and Nynaeve. I love that the tension isn’t if they love each other or not, but if they can find a time and place to be together. So when the show decided that these star-crossed lovers could just bone already, I was overcome by a case of the swoons.
