Emma Thompson is doing press for her film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, which comes out in a couple of weeks. As Kaiser mentioned, the film’s premise is that Emma’s character hires a sex worker to help her have her first orgasm. It will also be the first time Emma has appeared nude in a movie. One might think it took Emma until her 60s to work up the courage to be naked on film, but she said that she wasn’t ever offered the opportunity. According to Emma, she’s been told her whole career that she doesn’t have the right body to disrobe. She said she’s been judged harshly her whole career and by her 30s, the press said she’d let herself go. But Emma said she hadn’t given up, she’d just stopped starving herself.
Emma Thompson has experienced her share of body shaming.
The two-time Academy Award winner, 63, recounted male executives telling her she didn’t have “the right kind of body” for sex scenes as she spoke to The Times about her new movie Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.
“I’ve never really been offered sex scenes,” she said. “As my mother said, I’ve basically played a series of ‘good’ women. I do ‘cerebral.’ And I have also never conformed to the shape or look of someone they might want to see naked.
“And by ‘they,’ I mean male executives. I’m too mouthy, not pretty enough, not the right kind of body. And, crikey, you are constantly told what kind of body you have,” Thompson added.
She also recalled enduring disparaging comments about her body from the media for the better part of her career.
“In one interview I did, the male journalist wrote that I’d put on a lot of weight since I appeared in Fortunes of War, and that my legs were ‘now like tree trunks,’ and that I’d ‘let myself down,’ ” Thompson said. “I was 31 and, quite frankly, no longer starving myself. I don’t think anyone realises quite how thin most actresses are in real life. They look quite… unreal.”
We’ve heard these stories about what execs say to women and yet, every time I hear them, I’m shocked. I agree that people don’t know how thin actresses are. Nor do they know the measures they have to go to stay that way. It’s not that actresses come off as frail or brittle in person, but their figure has to have no bad angles. My heart hurts thinking about the demands made on these women and the critiques they hear. The larger problem is, those critiques are passed on to all of us. When a non-actress-sized woman hears someone tell a thin woman that her legs are “like tree trunks,” she’ll only see herself as even more flawed.
The People article talked about how Emma and her co-star, Daryl McCormack, got comfortable for the nude scenes. They and director Sophie Hyde all got naked and rehearsed that way after discussing their bodies and their relationships with their bodies, including what they liked and disliked. That sounds like my version of hell given my own body issues, but it must have been incredibly freeing for them. I like this new journey for Emma. I like that’s she’s dictating what’s desirable now. Like when Diane Keaton did her first full-frontal nude scene at 57, I’m sure we’ll be phrasing this as how brave Emma is but it shouldn’t be brave, it’s just a choice. And the best part is, it’s a choice Emma got to make on her own terms.
Photo credit: Avalon Red and Getty Images
Yes, I believe she’s right.
I met Drew Barrymore (someone I always thought was a little more “normal” sized), and she was the tiniest person I had ever seen in my life. I was shocked. How thin must the super skinnies be IRL? Keira Knightly, Kate Middleton, Kendall Jenner, Angelina Jolie?
I met Julia Louis Dreyfus once in Santa Monica, at Houstons Steak House. I was SHOCKED at how short she was, and at the fact that she couldn’t’ve weighed more than 90-95 soaking wet!! Same with Susan Lucci (at Cheesecake Factory in Bev Hills); long time ago, as she was holding her son, then 5, and he was almost as big as she is!! She was barely 5′, and about 85-90 lbs, bones everywhere.
Both women looked like lollipops (big head, stick bodies). SO TINY they looked like you could prop them on a bed!
My BIL worked in TV (creator/EP) and whenever we’d go to a taping, I’d be shocked how these women/girls who looked slim but “normal” on tv, were SO TINY in person.
You have to have such a disciplined life of deprivation to stay that slim…. and/or exercise like a FIEND to deficit calories to stay that skinny.
My sister has met Angelina Jolie (when Jolie came to D.C. recently) and she said AJ was shockingly, almost distractingly, thin.
I met Laurie Holden, who played Andrea from the Walking Dead, at a convention maybe 10-11 years ago. She was shockingly thin in person.
@Laurelita I’ve seen Angelina a few years ago too, when she looked healthier in pics still, but she was scarily skinny even back then. Keira Knightley, however, looked somewhat “normal” skinny, as in: she was very thin, but not in a way you never see in rl, I was very surprised by that too. Jennifer Lawrence though, when people still talked about her weight all the time, was super slim and delicate. It made those discussions extra bizarre.
Actors, both male and female, are often tiny, short, and have big heads in real life. Idk if it translates well to the screen or what it is. Old school examples are like archetype for me, like Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, Renee Zellweger etc but they’re like that now, too.
I do a lot of background work in movies and TV. All of the actresses that I worked with have bodies like 10 year old girls. None of them weight more than a 100 pounds. The camera does really add on weight.
My mom met Kirstie Alley back in the ’90s, when she worked at Kmart (my mom, not Kirstie!). She said Kirstie was nice & beautiful, and she couldn’t understand why people gave her so much grief over her weight, because Kirstie was quite slim. FYI–at the time, Kirstie had a place in the Applegate Valley, in southern Oregon. My brother also had an encounter with Kirstie in his work capacity as a county road maintenance worker; he said the same thing, and raved about her beautiful eyes.
And yeah, I know, she’s a COS loony, but even COS loonies have to go out & about among us sometimes.
Saw Drew Barrymore at my (former) workplace once. She is generally tiny, which surprised me. I thought she was closer to 5’6″. She reminded me of the silent film era actresses – tiny women. Mary Pickford wasn’t even 5′. Greta Garbo was one of the rare exceptions, being taller.
I have to remind myself of how weird angles look in pics or how small these women must be IRL. I swear I look at my body and do not look anywhere near as big as I do in photos.
@Gemma IKR? I saw Keira Knightley and her husband in Soho in London in 2019 and found her surprisingly “normal”. Slender, yes, but also healthy-looking. They were having ice-creams too.
My SIL met Kelly Ripa and said she was all bones and no meat at all! My SIL was stunned by how incredibly tiny Kelly was.
She’s absolutely right. Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick have an apartment about two blocks from me. When they are in NYC, I see them walking their dogs in Central Park fairly regularly. She looks like a strong wind will blow her over. I’m relatively tiny, but she makes me feel gargantuan.
I’ve seen Bebe Neuwirth around in nyc —and while I love her and think she’s incredible—I was going to say the exact same thing you did, Liz: she literally looks like a feather floating from place to place because in person she appears to weigh nothing!
I saw this tweet the other day that shows how focal length on a camera changes how a face looks. It blew my mind! I imagine that’s also what happens to bodies. What our eyes see as “depth/sides” in real life becomes part of the front width when seen through a camera.
https://twitter.com/risenchoices/status/1523139036675997698?s=21&t=jOodkJkTp0dmljLlXVkCCg
Wow that was wild!
Whoa! That IS wild!
I once saw Kate Walsh in person. If you look up photos of her I always thought she had a slim but more realistic body type. I’ve seen articles where she has stated “I have never been skinny”.
NOPE. She is SO SO slender that I am still shocked. She looked VERY much like a lolipop. Now I can’t stop wondering how frail looking Ellen Pompeo must look in person. (To be clear this is nowhere near the time KW was dx with cancer)
Since when was she diagnosed with cancer? You mean the brain tumour in 2015? She looked really thin even on screen to me circa 2006-07 (although I hadn’t seen her irl yet around that time) but outside of that I wouldn’t say she looked like a lollipop. Slim but not…with a big head? Lol.
I saw Heather Locklear in person once in NYC. I’ve seen bigger twigs. Plus, her hair was like straw and her elbows were scaly. I’ve only seen a couple of people thinner than that in real life and one if them was dying of cancer.
My friend is currently working as an assistant to a MAJOR young film actress on a film. Said actress doesn’t eat. She drinks coffee and Diet Coke. Very odd behaviour. My friend spends a lot of time trying to get her to eat something, anything, and contain her weird behaviour. I can only assume she’s delirious since her body has been in starvation mode for years now?
I know that I’ve been to a Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition showing dresses worn by famous actresses to the Oscars, etc and was genuinely shocked at how tiny the waists were on the dresses for Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman. And I knew they were thin! But when you see it in real life, up close… Its kind of off-putting.
When I was young I worked in a restaurant where famous people visiting used to eat. They were all minuscule. Avril looked like an 8 year old child walking through the restaurant. Beyoncé was mini with a tiny bum (it only looks like a bigger bum next to all the skeletons of Hollywood), the Rock was not that big! I mean, for me, anyway. I had a series of very tall boyfriends but I expected him to be HUGE and he was just average tall guy with some muscle. I’ve met bigger men.
Love her. Totally believe everything she says here
I believe and love her. I recall an interview with Alex Kingston when she was playing Elizabeth Corday on E.R. She said of the executives, they were sitting around in a room and deciding if she would be getting another season, one says ‘She’s beautiful’ and the response comes back ‘Yeah, but would you want to **** her?’.
Have you guys ever seen this? “last fuckable day” by Amy Schumer with Julia L-D, Tina Fey and Patricia Arquette:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPpsI8mWKmg
@Ninaa,
I saw that a couple years ago; very funny!
Same.
I think everyone in camera is much skinnier and smaller/shorter than anyone realizes. I saw Matthew McConaughey a few years ago and was shocked at how short and painfully skinny he looked
Yeah, the same goes for news reporters.
I remember my first time seeing the woman who did the local news in person. On camera she looked normal, but in person she was TINY. That was when I realized that my view of “normal” on camera was incredibly skewed.
I had the same experience when I saw a local news reporter at a restaurant. She was thin on camera, but in person she was tiny. That was actually how I noticed her first, I noticed how tiny this person was.
I’ve met a morning news reporter from Long Island and she looks perfectly normal in real life, maybe a little thin but nothing really unusual.
YES!!! I once saw a very famous local news reporter and was absolutely blown away by how small she was! She looked thin on camera but not insanely thin.
Yes, I have seen him too and fully agree. Living in NYC, it still always shocked me to see how minuscule many actors were in person and how very tall and painfully thin models are. Many models truly look almost otherworldly.
A couple of actors I’ve seen looked quite ordinary though: Liev Schriber (very tall), Julia Styles, and Jason Schwartzman come to mind.
Most models look like praying mantis (mantises? Mantisi?) in real life. I believe the “I thought I was ugly and no one liked me in school” stories. They look gorgeous now after styling/confidence but I can see how miserable it would be in middle school – frizzy hair, Walmart clothes, towering over even the teachers.
Coffee Shop in union square NY was famously a waitress-until-I’m-scouted new model spot to see the transitions in real time.
My cousin was a working model for years. (Not a big-name model, but someone who worked steadily for stuff like Nordstrom catalogs.) I can remember going out to eat with her when she was in her mid-20s and I was maybe 12? We’re both very tall, but I ate more than twice than she did–and I was a super skinny kid! But she, a 6-foot-1 adult, placidly worked her way through a small spinach salad and called it good. It was eye-opening, and certainly ended any thoughts I might have had about ever attempting to model. That wasn’t a meal. It was barely an appetizer.
I read a memoir from a former teen idol and he was 5’5″ 125 lbs and at one point he was down to 112. There was a girl on his show who was skinny even by TV standards and all she ate were carrots, to the point where she was turning orange.
was that David Cassidy’s book? I remember Susan Day talking about eating only carrots & turning orange
I walked by him once and I did a double take because his arms were so short! And because his arms were muscular it made it even more weird. I think people call him Dinosaur Arms as a joke and I can concur.
Yep, I’ve believed this for a while. I was on vacation in LA with my family in high school, maybe ‘99, and we were at a random little Italian restaurant in the afternoon and no one was there really and Nicholas Cage was at the table next to us and he was so much shorter/smaller than I thought he was irl. I was shocked.
I saw Nicolas Cage and his then wife (and baby) in Australia when he was shooting a film here, probably about 14 years ago. Was about one metre from him; literally nearly bumped into him. Yes, he’s shorter in real life than his movies suggest and smaller than he looks in films like Con Air.
The two celebrities I saw in person were Salma Hayek and Jared Leto. Jared was quite short and skinny with the bluest eyes imaginable BUT Salma was so so so tiny I could not believe my eyes. She was like a porcelain doll and she is supposed to be one of the curvy ones!
Same. I met Jared Leto shortly after he won his Oscar and I was blown away by how literally delicate he is. And those eyes! Very piercing. His brother Shannon was quiet the hoot!
I’ve met a few actresses/celebs (Julianne Moore is one…) and they are truly tiny in a way that is hard to comprehend, both in height and in size. Very teeny bodies and a ton of (mostly fake) hair, it makes them all look a bit like teeny delicate lollipops.
My friends and I call this “the big head theory”—that the likelihood of your success on camera is directly proportionate to the size of your head. I worked at Vanity Fair and would see this at every party, where celebrities looked exactly as you described—”teeny delicate lollipops.”
That’s actually the Merv Griffin Theory. For the young’uns out there he created both Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune, and had his own talk show. I think he’s the first in Hollywood to say this out loud, that stars are the ones with physically big heads. Note his choice of Vanna White for Wheel.
Huh, he did a lot more than I realized. Here’s his IMDb page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0341311/bio
JM also said in an interview how hard it was/she worked to stay that tiny (black coffee, plain “dry” lettuce for lunch” or MAYBE a half of a power bar, her only “food” at dinner being steamed fish and perhaps a few steamed veggies. She had to “save” her one drink a week if she had be in invited to a party or premier, and you couldn’t eat there, if you did, NO FOOD the next day).
She said (and I’ll NEVER forget this): She walks around hungry ALL of the time.
What a way to live. Surprised more aren’t collapsing on the streets!
I read an article once years ago with Carrie Underwood and she was talking about what she ate and it was pretty much the same thing – like half a granola bar for dinner – but the whole take on it was different, like “wow she’s so disciplined.” I was like……uhh…..that’s not healthy.
I do think its important for celebs to talk about what they eat, not to be bodyshamed but because I think its important for people (especially younger boys and girls) to realize that those bodies are not natural and aren’t something that you should use as an example of how you want to look.
Yasmin Le Bon said the same thing–she was hungry all the time when she modeled.
A lady I know is in Hollywood and appears on a network show. She comes to visit and my parents will run into her at social gatherings. My mom says how thin, frail and unlike herself. She’s always been healthy looking, like Kate did before marrying Wills, and now she has morphed into a person we don’t really recognize.
I have been amazed at how small male actors are. Few are the tall and muscular. And those thin short women help make the men look bigger/taller then they actually are.
I once saw Robert Redford at a restaurant and I thought, “I can fling this man across the room” he was tiny!
When I was working the register at a gift shop in college, a man came up to me and asked me for the time. I told him, 3 o’clock, and he thanked me. A few minutes later, a coworker came to tell the folks behind the counter that Rob Lowe was in the store, and then they pointed him out to me. I said, “That’s not Rob Lowe! I just told him the time!” But it WAS him. It was during the time her was in the media because he had a threesome with a minor. He can’t be more than 5”4, another lollipop, and women in film are tiny to accommodate the Rob Lowes of the business.
Sorry, I think someone was pranking you. I’ve worked with Rob Lowe at a charity event and he was a tad shorter than my 6 foot husband. I’d say he was 5’11” he was thin though, although I wouldn’t say really thin, and terribly attractive. I’ve seen Angelina Jolie at one event too and she was very thin. She was really the only famous actress I’ve met that I was like woah you are way underweight. Of course most everyone I met was 90- early 2000. It’s probably worse now.
I met Jerry Seinfeld & Julia Louis Dreyfus at NATPE one year, and I do remember Julia being a lot shorter than I thought, but not overly thin, but she was wearing something bulky. It was cold in SF. All the actors have big heads apparently, it shows up well on camera. I got told that by a director once.
Gwen Stefani has said something to this effect too.
@Christina
I would never have thought that Rob Lowe was shorter than average but he does look similar in height to Fred Savage (they were both in The Grinder) who I’m guessing is no more than 5’6. Rob is probably 5’7.
Not to further shame anyone, but most actresses are, as my grandpa would say, a bag of bones. They might be toned, muscular, etc, but all very thin. Does nobody remember Julia Robert’s character in Notting Hill say she’s been starving for x many years?
I remember Julianne Moore saying in an interview she ate pretty much nothing but yogurt in order to stay thin! Ugh. Found the actual quote:
“I still battle with my deeply boring diet of, essentially, yogurt and breakfast cereal and granola bars. I hate dieting. I hate having to do it to be the ‘right’ size. I’m hungry all the time. I think I’m a slender person, but the industry apparently doesn’t. All actresses are hungry all the time, I think.”
Just when I think I can’t love Emma more, she says or does something that makes me love her more
Same.
Agreed. Emma T. is the epitome of a GREAT woman & actress.
Same here. I was a runway model and it is brutal, and incredibly unhealthy (for the body and the psyche). Most models have eating disorders and/or drug issues. I love Emma for calling it what it is.
The daughter of a good friend of mine had a promising modeling career in the mid-eighties, got sent to Europe for a bunch of assignments and came back after having a nervous breakdown. The pressure of being told how fat she was (5’10” and 120 lbs), the ease of getting drugs to kill her appetite, and the astonishing number of rich, evil men (mostly billionaire Saudis and don’t pillory me for this) hovering around to take advantage of these young women sent her over a cliff. I remember her mother bringing her over to my place one night shortly after she got back from Europe and she was a shaking, almost non-verbal mess. Since then I have HATED the modeling industry and the damage it inflicts on so many women.
Agree….I was shocked to see how tiny and short Beyoncé is. She really looked very curvy but when I met her I was surprised. This is before she had the babies. She was also very nice, a bit shy for engaged and respectful and so was her husband Jay Z.
Met a few other too and same thing….they are tiny.
Somehow I always thought Emma Thompson and her artsy films lived in a different stratosphere where this BS didn’t touch her. I can’t believe they were saying this shit to Emma friggin Thompson. I hate Hollywood.
Plus, she’s gorgeous!
I can’t wait for the movie, the trailers look amazing.
When Titanic came out, I remember being so happy that Kate Winslet, THE actress of the moment, looked a little more like the average young woman. She was still slim and of course beautiful but not skinny. Which was the only option for beauty in the 90s. And then she was called fat over and over again and had to discuss her alleged obesity or whatever in countless interviews. And I thought okay, great, so she’s fat, what the hell am I?
Now that red carpets are happening again, I’ve really started to notice how thin most actresses must be in real life. I recently lost a lot of weight due to health issues and I’m still nowhere near skinny. If I try to imagine how much less I would have to eat to look like that … it’s just not okay.
Oh god the Kate Winslett thing was so gross. Hard to imagine how damaging that was to so many women who already struggle with body image. Sigh.
IIRC Kate lost a lot of weight BEFORE she started filming Titanic – she spoke about it for years afterwards about how at one point all she ate was Brussel Sprouts. I think a condition of her getting the role was that she got her weight down to a certain level – its must have been so hard for her when after the movie came out she got all that abuse.
When Titanic was first released, I remember James Cameron calling her “Kate Weighsalot.”
I was on the set of Mare of Eastown and Kate looked slim and beautiful but not scary skinny like most actresses. I was shocked when I saw the show and she looked slightly plump. Jean Smart on the other hand was skin and bones
I was shocked seeing the *costumes* the actresses have worn in movies (it was a Disney movie costume display in a museum). They had the real costumes on Perfectly-tailored mannequins and I was surprised at how diminutive everyone looked. Not just skinny, but tiny. I was expecting Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent costume to look small, but Emily Blunt’s Mary Poppins dress looked so tiny that I was taken aback I because I never thought of her as especially skinny. And even Oprah’s Wrinkle in time costume looked smaller than I thought. These stars are all tiny with huge heads.
Lol, old Merv Griffin used the “big head” theory to cast Wheel of Fortune’s hosts, Pat Sajak and Vanna White. He thought people with big heads looked better on camera.
Ha! That’ll teach me to read through all the comments before commenting, because I said the same thing above.
Same here when I saw the Elizabeth Taylor jewelry and clothing exhibit. She was tiny, even when the tabloids were attacking her for being ‘heavy’, those caftans were still tiny sizes.
I went to one of the Diana exhibits and was so startled at how tall and tiny she was.
Re: Liz Taylor. One of her dresses during her ” heavy” Burton phase was on display at the Dior exhibit. I’m a small person, but the last time I think my waist was that small I was 14yrs old. The Dior exhibit was wonderful but I started wondering if people ate back then. The waists on the dresses and the coats were so small. No adult should have a waist so small.
They don’t have waists that small. They wear bone-crunching, Scarlett O’Hara corsets to cinch their waists for the gowns. Any period film also means a deeply uncomfortable corset for the actor.
She was also very tiny in height, like 4’11, which would skew her as overweight on film and print (even though she wasn’t!)
Huh. This actually makes me feel better. I just took a photo in front of the Lincoln Memorial and my head looked so tiny in proportion to my body. I thought maybe it was the angles, but I realized I don’t have many full body pics. I’m pretty fit, slender, and tall, and really like my body, so it was a little jarring, like maybe I do too many calf raises?
I went to the Marvel exhibit. The costumes were raised up around 4-6 inches. I spent a lot of time jumping to see how big different actors are. I must have looked like a nutter.
LOL – That sounds like something I’d do!!
I saw the costumes from The Tudors in Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin where some of the scenes were filmed and was struck by how tiny they were as well. Even the men’s costumes were small.
I still remember seeing Judy Garland’s red dress from Meet Me In St. Louis at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery. She was TINY. Her waist was tiny. The only other time I was even more startled to see how small someone was was when I saw Charlotte Bronte’s travel/wedding dress at the Morgan Library. I could have tossed her over my shoulder and carried her up a couple of flights of stairs. She was child size.
On Emily Blunt being thin, remember Amy Pascal’s leaked Sony emails going on about how she looked anorexic in real life?
I think she speaks the truth. When you see actors on camera and they are fully clothed, the way they look doesn’t usually appear unusual. But there are times when you see a photo or a shot of them in clothes that reveal some skin and I have been shocked to be able to see every single bone in some actors chests. Now some people are naturally very thin, but in some of those shots, the actors appear almost frail. I watch Emily in Paris as a guilty pleasure and I did take notice of how thin Collins appeared to be this season. I’m not trying to concern troll or body shame, she simply seemed very thin even next to other very thin actors. I think the industry is still very cruel, even if it appears to be slowly changing.
I watch Emily in Paris too, and yeah, Lily Collins’s waist is so tiny this season that it’s distracting me from the actual story.
I keep telling myself that since she has a history of disordered eating, I keep telling myself that she’s someone who has the support system to handle the industry in a mentally and physically healthy way. I hope I’m right.
I didn’t know that about her history. I hope you are right and she has supports in place should she need them. I didn’t watch the new season when it came out, I just watched and I was somewhat unnerved by how thin she appeared to be. I feel like the industry still makes it very hard for women but so much of their craft is about their physical appearance/attractiveness. Ugh.
Another dirty secret is how many actors smoke, men and women, specifically for weight control.
Smoking is the least of it. Surgery, drugs, disordered eating, prescription pills, etc etc…just far too much pressure to look good on camera and in designer clothes.
Adderall
And laxatives, sadly. I knew an assistant that had to throw away her employer’s underwear every day because it was wrecking her body. Very, very sad.
I feel bad saying this but I actually had to stop watching Emily in Paris because Lily’s weight was so triggering for me. Not just her skinniness but how they seemed to play it up and accentuate it with the clothing choices! I felt awful thinking about all the teenage girls watching the show.
As for Emma – hooray for her saying this and doing a movie like this in her 60s, on her own terms. I’m definitely buying a ticket.
This actually isn’t the first time Emma Thompson has appeared nude. One of her very first movies was a sweet little comedy called “The Tall Guy” with Jeff Goldblum, where they had the funniest and oddest sex scene. The goods were on full display in that film. Just wanted to put that out there because it’s worth watching. Hilarious movie!
Made me think of Much Ado About Nothing too. She wasn’t nude, but there was plenty of wet, thin white cotton showing nearly everything for all the actresses during the bathing scene. The women’s costumes were essentially one thin layer of white lawn with nothing underneath the entire film. Gents were doffing leather trousers and bathing separately, but Branagh got a lot past the censors.
Adding, for another hilarious film with funny sex scene, I recommend Destination Wedding with Reeves and Ryder.
I LOVE Much Ado About Nothing. That movie has one of the greatest opening scenes in cinematic history–the men riding over the hill to the tune of the music–chills every time!
Love that movie! Had to wait months for it to show up in my local art house movie theater on Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg. And now I have it on DVD. I should open it up and watch it since it has been years.
@Little Red…hello, fellow Virginian, from down the road in Portsmouth! Absolutely adore Williamsburg!
Anytime I watch a TV show or movie, I always wonder about the temperature. Or at least which person is uncomfortable.
Women are typically in skimpy things and men frequently have long sleeves or jackets or something similar.
I can’t. stop. noticing it. I feel its the kind of thing that I would notice in person as well, though.
Sandra, that’s me, too! And you’re right, it’s usually the woman who I figure is freezing, ’cause she’s not wearing a coat (hides the figure!) or hat (flattens the hair!), while the guy gets to wear a coat & hat & boots.
Yeah her memory seems to fail her. I clearly remember graphic and explicit sex scenes in Carrington.
And one funny orgasm scene in Peter’s friends.
That’s the movie I was thinking of, Carrington! My god, that movie made me cry, the look on her face when she… (I won’t spoil it if others haven’t watched it). Still, I’m willing to bet she was insulted enough by enough male executives that her overall point still stands. I just watched the trailer for this movie & it looks like fun!
My state has movies and tv shows shoot all over and I have met quite a few actress. They truly are alarmingly thin. The camera does add 10 pounds and the industry doesn’t allow for these women to show it.
Saw Sandra Bullock at the grocery store in the late 90s and could not believe how thin she was. I couldn’t believe it because I thought she was average sized. I saw Angelina Jolie in 2017 and she looked like an actual anorexic. I knew she was very thin but I was truly shocked. She had a teeny tiny almost skeletal frame and huge head.
They say the camera adds 10 pounds but I’m wondering if it’s more like 20.
You might be right about the 20 pounds. I met the actress Jeri Ryan (Star Trek) two separate occasions and she is about 5’7 and so, so thin. I couldn’t believe it.
It is more like 20.
The issue with flim is that you are taking a moving 3D object and compressing it into a 2D medium. That 3rd dimension doesn’t vanish, it factors in. The solution is weight loss, to basically, reduce that 3rd dimension, so to speak.
That is also where the “photogentic” and “not photogenic” conversation comes into play. Certain features make that translation better than others, thus are “more photogenic.” It is always striking to me how many people who are very photogenic are not actually that beautiful in person, and how the camera sometimes doesn’t do justice to others.
3D to 2D
That’s interesting. There’s quite a few people I know that are just stunning in real life and yet it never quite translates into photographs.
@Girl_ninja. That’s wild because Jeri Ryan was considered very shapely. I thought Sandra Bulloch was slim but kind of athletic with curves. I could not get over how FLAT was. And I’m not referring boobs or a butt. I mean her overall structure was so thin that from the side, she could have disappeared behind a pole. I’m not even exaggerating.
I once saw the entire original cast of 90210 as a kid (90s mall tour, of course) and they were all tiny and super skinny. Even Andrea, who was considered the “chubby” and “less hot” one. She was very very thin and strikingly pretty. Everyone was commenting on how gorgeous she was. Jason Priestly was not anywhere near the height that the teeny bopper mags listed him as. Dude was like 5’6″, max! I was shocked.
In my head, all actresses and singers are tall and thin, I don’t know why. In my head Beyoncé is 1.85cm, when she’s actually 1.69cm according to Google and she is probably quite thin, even if she looks “voluptuous” in pictures. I can’t even imagine what I would look like on screen lol and I’m a size 6
When I was in my early twenties a friend of mine saw Salt n Peppa backstage. Pep was “a big girl.” In real life–however–my friend said she could not have been over a size 6. We talked about it for months!
The last time I was in LA I remember being shocked at how very skinny some of the people I saw were (men and women) – I know actors often joke that they are always hungry but I can totally believe it. Its unhealthy and the health problems they will encounter later in life is not worth it.
It annoyed me when I lived in SoCal. That’s the thinnest I ever was. It’s like you move there and shrink but even at a size 4 I didn’t feel thin compared to the women around me. And sometimes I’d see someone really frail and skeletal and just be annoyed that I was supposed to want to look like that. Just ugh.
I saw Benjamin Bratt in the street a few years ago. He’s tall but I couldn’t believe how skinny he was, meh. I met SJP and Kim Cattrall on two different occasions. Both were extremely nice . I knew that SJP was short but she was TINY. Kim Cattrall was also very thin. I can’t imagine be hungry all day every day when you have the money to feed yourself.
I kept picturing the men saying all those disgusting things to her – they’re probably short, bald, and have a big gut. It makes me so angry.
I thought of this recently when I saw an old picture of Christina Hendricks when she was young and blonde. She was tiny. She looks amazing now and it’s hard to say if she looked “too thin” back then, but it was interesting to me how in this day and age as an actress you can be tiny and frail, or you can be curvy like Christina Hendricks or a body closer to Amy Schumer’s. I am not saying they’re plus size, but that is the general opinion.
So in Hollywood you can be the average starved starlet or you have to be someone whose “higher” weight is a defining characteristic of their career and common talking point.
They’re not “plus size” IRL but they look that way by comparison to ultra thin actors. As would most of us. But Amy Schumer tends to look like she’s been drinking. I know her characters play that part so maybe that’s where I’m getting it.
“So in Hollywood you can be the average starved starlet or you have to be someone whose “higher” weight is a defining characteristic of their career and common talking point.”
Yes ITA but if you’re of the latter category, even then you either have to be REALLY lucky or exceptionally talented. And then you’ll still face unending criticism about your weight. Sigh.
Mindy Kaling gets crap about her weight and I’m pretty sure she’s normal size. Now all of us are looking at people thinking this is normal, and it’s not.
I know how skinny they are. I used to live in LA and have seen many in person. Even the women who appear curvy on screen are way tinier in real life. It’s actually fascinating how much the camera changes what actors look like. It’s more than just their weight. Some actors and actresses photograph well but look plain in person. Like Gwyneth Paltrow, saw her up close and she was shockingly mousy. Then I saw Salma Hayek moments later and she was va-va-voom GORGEOUS. And believe it or not some actresses are even prettier in person. Saw Jessica Alba in person and I wanted to slap her she was so pretty. Then there are stars who don’t photograph as well but are prettier in person. Like Mary J. Blige. I was shocked at how pretty (and tiny) she was in person. The cameras do NOT do her justice.
In a way I sympathize with them, because they are all probably acutely aware of every angle and feel they must go overboard to look their best on camera.
I saw Keanu Reeves back in the early 2000s when he was in town filming a movie. We were in an art house theater in the lobby waiting in line to get tickets, and he was turned toward me to talk to one of the people in his group…and let me tell you, he is the most beautiful human being I have ever seen in my life. I didn’t notice his weight other than he looked normal for his height (it was winter, everyone was in coats), but my goodness I will never forget his face. I had not, until that point in time, thought him to be very good looking. On screen sometimes, he’s almost goofy looking to me, but he is a freaking angel come down to earth in person.
@tiger I met Keanu too around then when he was in Sydney filming and came to my then restaurant. Paps found out and swarmed, so we helped him and his date escape through the kitchen, via the back stairs to a car park. He. Was. Simply. Stunning. And so incredibly polite, sweet, and grateful…
Le sigh.
Years ago at the height of her fame in NYC, Sharon Stone walked into a restaurant and everything came to a dead halt. She was nice and didn’t do anything out of line but she was the most drop dead gorgeous human I think most of in the restaurant had ever seen.
I had a similar experience involving Darryl Hannah years ago. She is one of those rare actresses who is taller than you imagined. She walked into a restaurant in a micro mini skirt and everything stopped. My friend who had foot surgery and was in a wheelchair for convenience, swears all he saw was legs. Lol
Long time lurker here. Just wanted to comment to co-sign this! I saw Sharon Stone in a restaurant bathroom many years ago when she lived in San Francisco and did a double take because she was literally the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in person. It actually took me a minute to recognize that she was Sharon Stone. And I grew up in LA so was used to seeing beautiful people, but she was in an entirely different category.
That’s supposedly how Grace Kelly was–gorgeous in pictures and plain in real life.
Grace knew how to take great pictures because she had that very square jaw that she always wanted to hide. She could rock any angle with her head tilted or turned to one side, but seeing her square on in the face, yeah, she lost a lot of the appeal. Still a beauty in her own right though.
I saw Linda Evangelista in person in the 80s, and she it the top three most beautiful humans I’ve ever seen. Like OTHERWORLDLY.
I always thought MJB was beautiful. Now I want to see her and SH in person.
In regards to how Mary J. Blige looks in person vs on camera. On camera she looks like a “tough girl”. Attractive but edgy. In person I found her delicately pretty. And again, everything was tinier, even her face.
Linda Evangelista has always seemed other-worldly to me. Her beauty is so unusual and and so unique, it’s like she’s a goddess from some other planet.
Tree trunks are strong and sturdy and reliable! What a dumb thing to say as an insult! I have muscular legs and my toddler daughter inherited them too. I used to hate them but now wear my short shorts and get tons of compliments and admiring glances. Nothing wrong with thicker legs FFS!
I remember seeing Nicole Kidman when a movie was filming scenes near where I worked. My God I was shocked at how tiny she looked “in real life.” The camera definitely distorts sizes plus they are on film with a lot of other skinny people, but yeah the size in real life of some is shockingly tiny thin. I can totally believe the hungry all the time. And the cruelty of being spoken too like they are meat for sale is horrid.
My mom had a friend who lived in ….Brentwood, I think? Outside Nashville…and she would see country stars all the time at the mall or restaurants or wherever….and she said what you always noticed first was how thin they were. Like one time she was at the Gap and she was next to a super thin blonde woman and the first thing she noticed was the very blonde hair, then how super thin the person was, and then she realized it was Faith Hill.
It’s like the entire industry depends on these people – men and women – being super tiny and its so not healthy.
I saw Jennifer Aniston at a restaurant in Chicago a long time ago, I think it was when she was filming “The Break Up” with Vince Vaughn/dating him. (I just looked up the date that came out, 2006, so long time ago.) She is the tiniest adult person I’ve ever seen in real life and she’s very short. We were sitting on the patio of a restaurant and she wanted to smoke, and her bodyguard came over and asked if we minded if she smoked. I was about to say “yes” but my (gay, bestie) friend said “No, as long as she’ll take a picture with me!” The bodyguard went and asked her and she came back over and took a picture with him and said thank you for letting her smoke. I don’t remember what he was using as a camera. I think he used to carry around a digital one with him as I don’t think phones had cameras at that point?
I thought she was 5’6″. Is that very short? It’s definitely taller than average.
Most celebs are shorter than listed.
In 1992 at 5’8 105 pounds I was told I was too heavy. Escaped Weinstein once thanks to other models there. Was slated to drive down the day the Rodney king riots happened and that ended up putting the KIbosh on LA for decadesThe entire city of Los Angeles is this feels like these days
In 1989 at 5’10.5″ and I was told to lose 10 pounds if I was serious about modeling. I was 125 pounds.
I was just under 5’11” in the 90’s and early 2000’s and I was the “heavy one” at my agency at 135 lbs. I barely made the sizes for the runway shows. I looked so skinny that my family was asking me if I was sick. Thank you to all the posters sharing their stories. It’s healing to hear.
I follow Bree Lawson on IG and she post her workouts as she is training for Captain Marvel.
She already was a small woman and now she is disappearing, just with muscles.
I know it’s not about talent, but I’m sad because Brie Larson is far too talented for this lifestyle.
I volunteered at a charity event in NYC in 2001 and Susan Lucci was giving a speech. I have never seen a smaller person in my life. It was like seeing a walking lollipop. She was with her husband (RIP) at the time also. She was amazingly kind and sweet to everyone. And even took a moment to say thank you to me. And I was just a big nobody. I will always appreciate that.
I so agree on this. I’ve met quite a few actors/actresses, and bar none no one beats Lucci in size. She is the tiniest all around. She was nice though. Also, sometimes the male actors are thin and a lot are short, but generally the actresses are the worst with tiny. Like wind will blow them down. It’s crazy.
It’s actually really helpful to read this. We are all shaped by these images. I’m 47 years old, and I think in theory I’m perfectly fine because by every statistic, I’m certainly a normal weight. But somewhere in my mind I also think I need to loose weight because those actresses have ideal bodies and whenever I see pictures of myself I think I always look bigger than I think I should given my weight/size. I really try not to worry about it and just appreciate my body, but it does affect us all.
Brie Larson also is extremely, extremely thin
Looking at her IG photos, I can see how tiny she is. I notice the size of her head too. Just imagine what she looks like in real life. She’s seems to be proud and is clearly all in with dieting down to nothing. Makes me look at her differently. At least Julianne Moore seems to know how messed up the whole thing is, even as she adheres to it.
I have been around actors/actresses at charity events and I agree they all seem much smaller and shorter in ‘real life’ than on screen. However, I have been around a lot more athletes and although their size is not a big deal to me, some people find it shocking how big they actually are.
The only actress I recall ever seeing up close in person is Salma Hayek, and she is indeed a very tiny person (with gorgeous skin I might add). I really, really hate entertainment, women’s and fitness publications asking about these people’s diet and fitness regimens because they are completely unsustainable for a normal human being. You quite literally have to starve yourself to maintain that kind of physique. Plus, whenever you are dealing with an actress like Melanie Lynskey or Mindy Kaling who actually has the body of a normal-sized person, then you get all the commentary about her being fat when (a) they’re not and (b) it’s said in a tone as though being fat is the absolute worst thing that a person could be. It’s all so demented. Eating good food is one of life’s greatest pleasures. I can’t imagine having a job where I have to deny that to myself.
I’ve seen Kate Mara and Emma Roberts irl and they are so tiny!! I was shocked.
If you think about it she’s right, and these are the pics that “regular” ppl strive to be like … it’s so warped. Myself included
On the gossip side of this, I am astonished that she is getting away with pretending THE TALL GUY doesn’t exist. That film has some of the best, full out sex scenes ever, featuring Emma and Jeff Goldblum.
There’s a wonderful HBO Max show called “Somebody, somewhere” that has a fairly normal/heavy cast and the best part is NOBODY EVER MENTIONS WEIGHT.
Love Somebody Somewhere! Another show with good body positive casting is Yellowjackets, which is brilliant and has the excellent Melanie Lynskey as one of the lead actresses. And her character is allowed to be very complex and desirable (same as the Somebody Somewhere lead character).
I was in the biz back in the 80’s and I was skin and bones and was sometimes told I was too heavy or not sexy enough. I have the big head, but I also have wide shoulders and hips. No meat though. I look at photos of myself from back in the day and I was all bones. Zero fat. Just bones with little muscles. I had no idea how thin I was. What did they want???? The biz was so toxic. I’m glad I left it long ago.
I lived in New Orleans for 13 years. I have seen alot of celebrities. I am not shaming anyone here. I want to shame the industry that promotes and enforces this. I love Angelina but when I first saw her it was shocking. Same with Courtney Cox and Paris Hilton. I have suffered from Eating disorders and these people looked the same. I am NOT saying they have these things but…Hwood surely encourages this extreme behavior. It’s terrible.
My cousin is gorgeous and went to NYC to walk as a runway model. She did a few photo shoots, but then she started getting told how many inches she had to lose from here and there. She was 5’9” and 85 pounds. She was naturally that thin (my family has crazy genetics), and she told them to shove it – she wasn’t going to teach girls to be anorexic. She is now working on her Masters Degree.
I love that women like Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, Christina Hendricks, Demi Lovato etc. are outspoken about this and defiant against the societal and mostly male hegemony against normal size women. The desire to be thin as a pin has wrought such physical and emotional damage to so many women, and when actresses as freaking talented, smart and passionate as Emma Thompson, Kate Winslett, etc. were constantly ridiculed and told they were too fat just makes me so angry.
Agreed and thank God
Al of the above named women are stunning. I have a special love for Meg though–what a total beauty. Interestingly, because of her height and thickness she is constantly called manly. She’s probably a size 6.
I think websites/publications say that because they think we all compare women to the same standards. In reality I think most men would pass out if they saw her in person. 0_o
MegantheeStallion is a size 2. She’s 5’10” and 139lbs. She’s an athletic build and has a woman’s body, but she’s not a 6.
Agree @Jaded. It reminds me of when Kathy Bates did the hot tub scene in About Schmidt. People said ‘how brave’ ‘how courageous’. I’m going to guess KB was more like ‘f8ck it’, this is me. I’ve survived this industry this long they might as well see all of me. It’s good to see people talking about this.
I’m not detecting any lies with Emma’s words.
One of the most attractive people I know is of a larger size. Her personality and love for life draws men and women to her.
Wow. Should I be scared going on my upcoming vacay to LA, as I am short and and a size 14? I love how I look right now. But I guess to the entertainment sector I am grotesque! I hope to see some celebs while we are there. But I would never bother anyone in public. That seems so intrusive and rude to me.
Heh you’ll be fine. Only people on the fringes of Hollywood actually care about unrealistic body standards.
My cousin had to live in LA for work. He’s a new Yorker so seeing the level of shallowness was disturbing. And yes alot of people care about size. When I went out there I was about a size 6-8 and asked who did my boobs(they’re real), and if I was there for lipo… all asked at a restaurant. My sister and I were like wtf. We’re too east coast for this.
Any celeb I have seen in person is incredibly small. I have been saying this for years. The first time I saw the Chicks in concert I was like row 2. That was my main takeaway. Natalie was so so small. Emily’s legs were as big as my forearm.
I am all for people being whatever size makes them happy.
It is just shocking how much people you see on media are wayyyy smaller than that.
It’s probably nonsensical, but it bugs me that more women in Hollywood don’t come out and talk about how thin actresses are, and what they have to do to be that thin. There are some intelligent actresses out there who must be well aware of how non-celebs (and esp. young women) compare themselves to the unattainable so-called “ideal” that we see on the big screen. I guess most of them stay quiet because they don’t want to encourage eating disorders by talking about how they maintain such a very low weight? Or maybe they’ve been immersed in that world for so long that they honestly don’t see anything wrong with how thin they are.
I once read an interview with Emmy Rossum, who is already very thin, had to lose 6 pounds for her role. (I can’t imagine who decided that, either).
She talked about how her nutrition plan would like something like “one green apple and one poached egg” if she had a “cheat day” that week- which hardly even sounded like a cheat day.
I can not imagine how thin she must have already been to have to push herself this hard over 6 pounds. 6 pounds she said she was excited to gain back.
Emma Thompson is very talented and very beautiful.
Smart, funny, well educated, lovely smile, etc., etc., etc.
Words fail me that any man would not find her attractive and cast-able.
I bet the men who did the judging look like Harvey W. too.
Ugly men inside and out, with far less talent in every way.
Hollywood is nasty.
And yes, I think many in acting develop unhealthy habits to control their weight.
Smoking is likely the least of it.
I’ve met a few celebrities and agree they are shockingly small. Jessica Simpson circa 2010, made me feel like a giant (I am 5’4” and weighed 125lbs at the time). I never felt the same feeling tabloids rip her again, she was so so small. She was also incredibly polite and down to earth. Kristi Yamaguchi barley looked like a grown adult, and she was strong… but was unbelievably petite. Jada Pinkett Smith’s clothing came into a nonprofit I worked in and they would not fit my 11 year old, rail thin niece (she would be too tall, first of all).
Celebrities I have heard are teeny tiny when my friends saw them in person:
Emma Stone (they said she’s got a huge head)
Sylvester Stallone (feel like this is well known, like Tom Cruise)
Kelly Ripa, my friend said is child size
I think Gwen Stefani is another celebrity who said she walks around starving all the time.
I enjoy British tv more than American because there are a range of ages and body sizes and not everyone is size 0 with radioactively white teeth. The American obsession with perfection is overrated.
Add Khloe Kardashian to that list. My friend met her years ago in early fame days and got a picture with her. She was tall but she was also smaller than my tiniest friend, who was a 19 year old waif age the time . I was stunned now thin she is in real life
My daughter nearly died last year from anorexia. She spent 2 months in hospital, and the doctors said she is lucky to be alive. She has had lasting damage from the disease, such as low bone density and cognitive impairment.
I can’t imagine the long-term damage super-thin actresses are doing to themselves. It is so very sad that these unrealistic expectations are placed on them, and it most definitely permeates the mindset of women in our society.
My daughter was so weak that she couldn’t muster strength to get up and go to the bathroom. I had to buy her children’s clothes because size zero pants still fell off. But, she still thought she was too heavy. I realize not everyone who is ultra-thin has an eating disorder, but the fact that unattainable, unhealthy weight is still held in high regard is dangerous and tragic. Young people are constantly made to feel like they aren’t enough…not thin enough, not beautiful enough. It is toxic and it kills.
My heart goes out to you. My daughter has struggled, also. It’s heart breaking.
Sending much love to you and your daughter.
Sending you and @FHMom much love and sympathy. My sister died as a result of eating disorders, and media pressure was certainly a big part of her problems. This idealization of having to be thin with a perfect body in order to be acceptable as beautiful and socially acceptable MUST change.
@Duchess, this kills me! I hope your precious daughter gets healthy.
Thank you Stacey, Jaded, Tiffany, and FHMom. Jaded, I am so sorry for your loss, and FHMom, I wish your daughter strength for her recovery.
Eating disorders are so hard…it felt like our family was trapped in quicksand. Having had an eating disorder myself, I thought I would be able to prevent my daughter from having one. But, they are so insidious. I wish the media would take a hard look at what the quest for perfection is doing to people, particularly young people.
Thankfully, my daughter is much better, at least physically so. She is happy to be strong again. At this time last year, she couldn’t even throw a ball. She was having accidents because she was too cold and sore to walk to the bathroom. Today she is getting ready for her senior dance solo. It is a night and day difference. But, her emotional struggle is far from over.
One day at a time…one second at a time…that is all we can do. But, thank goodness, at least I still have her here to hug.
Carolyn Bessette (RIP) was very plain in person but photo’d well. Racquel Welch was rarely recognized on the streets but she was stunning on screen.
Most beautiful human I ever saw irl? JFK Jr. I met him twice and have never seen a pic that did him justice. He was breathtaking,
Was thinking, re: the height of male starts, that you can include Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman in there with Matthew McConaughy and Tom Cruise, as modern era stars, many of whom are quite short. By contrast I remember how surprised I was sometime back when I realized so many of the male stars of classic Hollywood were in fact very tall, at their peak – over 6 feet, and quite a number well over 6 feet. John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Burt Lancaster. In confirming my recollection was correct, I found the table below, in a blog compiled 8 or 9 years ago by Kimberly Truhler, whose background is apparently in fashion and film history. Thought people would find this interesting.
http://www.glamamor.com/2014/03/SizeofOldHollywoodStars.html
Turns out, she actually did a table for female stars first, also including weights and measurements. So many of the women were much shorter than I would have expected, 5’2″ – 5’3″, or less, at their peak – Veronica Lake, Gloria Swanson, Jane Powell, Mae West, Jean Harlow, Olivia de Haviland, Bette Davis, Vivian Leigh. A couple – Myrna Loy and Loretta Young, were giants by comparison, around 5’6″
http://www.glamamor.com/2013/08/sizing-up-old-hollywood-heights-weights.html
Interesting, thanks!
Am I the only one who smiled a bit at Judy Garland height 4′ 11″ and weight from 98-150. I love people that are like the rest of us in this, all over the board in weight. Marilyn Monroe’s is listed similarly. Now the bad part is both of these stars were abused with drugs and other bad things to be that thin and it didn’t last. Still weight fluctuations in women aren’t uncommon, or probably unhealthy not 50Lbs but certainly 10-15. It’s crazy,
Also, I think Mathew McConaughy isn’t that short. The reason I say that is his wife was a model and tall, 5’8″ at least and he never looks shorter than her even when she is in heals. I usually look at celebheights for height info and they compare celeb photos to regular people and other celebs, they have him at 5′ 10.75″
Some of my fav old school Hollywood stars were quite small. Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire as examples. Rita Hayworth and Cyd Charisse had to wear flats dancing with them because they were the same height or slightly taller than the male co-stars. Paul Newman was also pretty short, but next to tiny Elizabeth Taylor he looked much larger.
Bette Davis was tiny IRL but boy, did she project BIG!
Madonna also.
Very petite framed women who simply commanded the room.
The women in Hollywood should just all collectively say “f*ck it” and normalize actually taking proper care of themselves. Just like we shouldn’t be fawning all over Kim K for the Marilyn dress starvation or Jessica Simpson’s bikini weight-loss posts. Body image is socially constructed. It can be socially deconstructed.
If this is true then how thin must Duchess Kate be. She makes actresses look chubby when she stands next to them
I’m astounded at how thin Natalia Dyer looks in Stranger Things (she plays Nancy Wheeler). I can only imagine how much thinner she is IRL!
Natalia Dyer’s thinness is truly worrying. Makes me think of Ariana Grande too and other actresses/singers that appear absolutely minuscule on camera *with* those 20 lbs the camera adds. So strange and sad to think if we were to see most of these celebs in a grocery store in normal clothes, our visceral reaction would be one of shock and repulsion at their truly unhealthy appearance. When I see young women with those 8 inch thigh gaps, it never looks right.
Yep. It’s crazy because we’ve all been told for the last 20 years that AJ is the most beautiful woman in the world, yet when I saw her in person, I gasped because of the breathtaking beauty we see on film, but because she looked like an actual walking skeleton. Hollywood and the media really do a number on all of us.
Ex model here.
I was “one of those” 5″10 120ibs naturally, bullied at school for being tall and gangly.
Got signed as a model because I look like an alien the best way I can describe it is I’m so not conventionally pretty but you just knew I was a model: obvious in paris because walking around to casting carrying my huge portfolio with the famous agency name screen printed on it I mean duh, but even off duty people were out loud assuming I was a model.
Well, with modeling came eating disorders that I carry to this day. Because like many people already commented the exact same thing, 5″10 120ibs just wasnt good enough. I never did drugs cause I was too scared of them but let me tell what my diet consisted of during my short lived unsucesfull career: at the time I was booking my biggest jobs I was eating a boiled egg with tea for breakfeast. That’s it. I repeat: that’s it.
Do you pass out on just that? or Do you just get used to it? I’ve also wondered are most of the models angry, cause lack of food makes me mean. Even if I wasn’t 5′ 4″ I just couldn’t do it. I’d be the meanest person around.
Whenever I hear an actress or model has lost their temper my assumption is they’re hungry which I suppose translates into being snippy or possibly mean.
I know I’m super cranky when I don’t eat.
Didn’t Kim Cattrall say she’s been on a diet for decades? And Julianne Moore says all actresses are hungry. Couldn’t put up with their lifestyle. That’s why many of them smoke etc.
Re Emma, I remember during Sense & Sensibility press tour Kate Winslet said Emma took her aside during S&S filming and told her to knock it off with the nonsense; i.e., not eating. She was starving herself during that film, by her own admission.
I recall someone who handled an outfit of Marilyn Monroe’s being shocked that, despite her reputation for being voluptuous, she was obviously a very small woman.
I’ve heard similar comments about Kim Kardashian — that she’s actually quite a tiny woman, despite the curves — so it’s perhaps not surprising she could fit into Marilyn’s dress.
I met Sissy Spacek in person and was stunned at how thin she was. She couldn’t have weighed more that 90 lbs. I was also blown away at how beautiful she was. I don’t think that comes across in her films or photos.
I`ve always wondered how super-thin celebrities concentrate if they`re hungry all the time (that`s what they`re saying themselves, so I`m not projecting).
I`ve tried limiting my food but for work where I require concentration I have to go and eat something. Is it easier to diet to that degree if you get to take a nap at 2 pm?
I was once very sick and lost weight down to 99lbs. That was the skinniest i have ever been in my adult life. All i could eat then was boiled carrots and peas, with 5 4 96 height. The kind of comments i was getting at this was nauseating. You have never looked better, men making inapropriate jokes while passing by, and so on. I was deadly sick, but everyone just looked at my weight. Since then i gained a lot of weight, got healthier and seriously f*ck everyone who is so superficial to think that this is a good look, when you are actually starving.
Not surprised. At my first job, I often saw celebrities and many were painfully thin. I will say some looked “less sickly” and more naturally tiny—almost like they were naturally built that way (Kristen Stewart, Rooney Mara, Sienna Milller, etc. were all incredibly tiny but didn’t look ill (as in sunken cheeks, etc.)). Emma Stone, however, looked downright ill and it just made me feel…sad…as I love her. JLaw, as someone mentioned above, is very thin in real life (not extremely skinny, but still very thin) despite appearing more “slim but normal type of slim” and “curvy” on screen. Halle Berry is incredibly gorgeous, and so skinny.
This is so true. I never got more compliments in my life than when I had an eating disorder and got down to 98 lbs. My diet literally consisted of coffee and cigarettes for almost a year, and everyone told me how amazing I looked.
Also, to add, I remember Mila Kunis talking about her Black Swan experience. She was expected to be extremely underweight for that film and she says her mum was asking her if she was okay, as she was so thin. She also said it looks “amazing” on screen (your face looks amazing when you’re that thin, on camera) but it was really unhealthful.
Commenter above, I always suspected JLaw, even though she’s meant to be curvy, would be super thin in real life. Everyone talks about this when they have IRL celeb encounters: everyone’s so tiny and thin. Someone saw Alexa Chung in a club and she said she looked like a lollipop.