Emma Thompson threatened to quit this Hollywood film when her female co-star was asked to lose weight

‘Sorry, do you want me to be an actress of a model?’

Emma Thompson

‘Sorry, do you want me to be an actress of a model?’

Emma Thompson has never been afraid to speak her mind, always ready to call out mistreatment and take a stand against something she deems unfair.

Just yesterday, she revealed in an interview on TV show Skavlan, that anorexia in Hollywood is something she’s particularly vocal about. Emma went on to talk about the pressure on actresses in the film industry, sharing an anecdote from her 2008 film, Brideshead Revisited, where she played the role of Lady Marchmain alongside fellow actresses, Hayley Atwell and Felicity Jones.

Emma Thompson

‘There was a wonderful actress that I was working with on Brideshead Revisited,’ she announced, ‘and the producer said to her, “will you lose some weight?” And she was absolutely exquisite!’

She continued: ‘I said to them, “If you speak to her about this again, on any level, I will leave this picture. You are never doing that."’

emma thompson

‘Sorry, do you want me to be an actress or a model?’ she continued, explaining, ‘It’s evil what’s happening and what’s going on there, and it’s getting worse.’

‘The anorexia – there’s so many kids, girls and boys now, and actresses who are very, very thin into their 30s, who simply don’t eat. They don’t eat … Sometimes there are just some subjects that you absolutely have to make noise about because it’s so tedious and it’s gone on and on.’

Jenny Proudfoot
Features Editor

Jenny Proudfoot is an award-winning journalist, specialising in lifestyle, culture, entertainment, international development and politics. She has worked at Marie Claire UK for seven years, rising from intern to Features Editor and is now the most published Marie Claire writer of all time. She was made a 30 under 30 award-winner last year and named a rising star in journalism by the Professional Publishers Association.