Anne Hathaway lost 25 pounds for her upcoming role in “Les Miserables.” But now the star has some reservations about her body and what was dubbed “the Anne Hathaway diet.” In a recent interview, the “Princess Diaries” star talks about her weight, the pressure to stay thin in Hollywood and her shame about her body image.
“I still feel the stress over ‘Am I thin enough? Am I too thin? Is my body the right shape?’” she says. “There’s an obsessive quality to it that I thought I would’ve grown out of by now. It’s an ongoing source of shame for me.” It’s unfortunate that a woman as beautiful and healthy-looking as Hathaway has shame and constant stress over what her body looks like.
The brunette beauty has been in a number of movies and, as a former teen actress, has seemed to avoid some of the social pitfalls that her counterparts (i.e. Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes) have endured. However, this is the one area where the actress admittedly struggles. One might think that in the ferociously competitive acting world, the “Les Miserables” star would be more concerned about the quality of her work than her weight.
However, with the media scrutiny on women’s bodies it is understandable why a talented woman like Hathaway might experience shame about her appearance. Often, Hollywood actresses are criticized for being or even appearing overweight. Earlier this year, Ashley Judd was torn apart by the media for the noticeable puffiness in her once slender face. She fired back, letting the public know she had been prescribed a steroid for a serious sinus infection; which lead to the puffy-face side effect. Judd criticized the press for their relentless pursuit of an explanation for her appearance in an op-ed piece saying, “We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification.”
For her part, Hathaway has not yet been so brave but that could change. In the past, the young actress was frightened over the constant presence of the paparazzi so she did things like wear a hat in public with her hair pulled down to hide. With the new pixie cut (as a result of cutting her hair for the “Les Miserables” role), Hathaway can’t hide. “…I’m a fairly shy person, and [in the past] on days when I didn’t want to deal with the world, I’d wear a hat and pull my hair around me and hide,” she said. “I can’t do that now. I have to be me all the time.” With her significant star power, hopefully Hathaway, like Judd, can become an advocate for women to be themselves in both Hollywood and everyday life.
