anne hathaway weight shaming

Anne Hathaway recalls how she was told to lose weight for acting role

The Hollywood star opened up about her experience

US Managing Editor
August 14, 2019

Anne Hathaway is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, but although she has had an incredibly successful career, the actress has also experienced the not so great side of being in the public eye. In the September issue of Allure magazine, in which she is the cover star, she recalled that she had been subtly body shamed after being told to focus on her weight. After landing a role in drama series Get Real in 1999, she was told: "Congratulations, you have the part. I'm not saying you need to lose weight. I'm just saying don't gain weight." Anne added: "Which, of course, means you need to lose weight."

Anne Hathaway recalled how she was told to lose weight for an acting role

The star also gave her opinion on the slow change in Hollywood towards body inclusivity, but that she thinks there is still some way to go. "I am cautious in my praise of how Hollywood is shifting. There is so much more body inclusivity – which is great! – but the thin thing is definitely still the centralised 'normal expectation.'" More recently, Anne was told to gain 20Ibs for film The Last Thing He Wanted, which she was more than happy to do. Last year, the star even shut down body shamers on Instagram by revealing that her weight gain was part of her role. She said: "I am gaining weight for a movie role and it is going well. To all the people who are going to fat shame me in the upcoming months, it's not me, it's you. Peace xx."

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The actress is currently expecting her second baby

Anne – who is expecting her second child with husband Adam Shulman – is refreshingly honest and open. The star recently spoke out about her struggles conceiving, admitting to feeling "tormented" whenever she saw pregnant women while she was trying for another baby. She told the Daily Mail: "Each time I was trying to get pregnant and it wasn’t going my way, someone else would manage to conceive. I knew intellectually that it didn’t happen just to torment me, but, to be honest, it felt a little bit like it did."

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The Ocean’s Eight star, who has a three-year-old son, added that she was "embarrassed" about feeling jealous of pregnant women because nobody ever talked about it. When Anne announced her pregnancy on Instagram with a black and white snap of her bump on Instagram (above), she captioned it: "For everyone going through infertility and conception hell, please know it was not a straight line to either of my pregnancies. Sending you extra love."

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