Sam Claflin opened up about getting body-shamed at auditions, saying, “I don’t eat for weeks”
Negative body image and fat-shaming are huge issues in Hollywood. Society has (fortunately) become more attuned to the shame felt by actresses, but male actors go through the body-shame ringer as well. In Friday’s issue of The Sydney Morning Herald actor Sam Claflin opened up about being body-shamed at auditions and how Hollywood beauty standards have made him insecure.
"I'm not saying it's anywhere near as bad as what women go through," Claflin said, "but I, as an actor approaching each job, am insecure — especially when I have to take my top off in it — and so nervous. I get really worked up to the point where I spend hours and hours in the gym and not eating for weeks to achieve what I think they're going for."
The Hunger Games star said that male body-shaming happens and is rarely talked about. At one audition he was told to lift his shirt up and was then subjected to people grabbing at his fat and being told to lose weight. He said he felt like a piece of meat.
He noted that this recent obsession with Hollywood and perfect bodies is affecting how men and women feel about their own image. Claflin told the Morning Herald,
"In the '50s and '60s, it was never an issue. James Bond never had a six pack. He had a hairy chest. Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire had an incredible body but he was by no means ripped to within an inch of his life. There's a filter on society that this is normal but actually it's anything but normal."
We’re inching closer and closer to knocking down Hollywood’s unrealistic beauty standards, and a huge part of this progress comes from performers like Claflin choosing to speak up about it. We know it’s not an easy thing to do, and we are genuinely so proud of you, Sam!
