21 Celebrities Who Fought Back Against Hollywood’s Absurd Beauty Ideals

The talented actress revealed that she’s been “sucking in” her stomach since she was 11 years old, an age “when you start being conscious about boys and bodies.”

 

Now, she's planning to stop.

“In the world, there is an industry—a billion-dollar, trillion-dollar industry—about hiding things,” she captioned a photo of herself in character.

“Concealers. Body shapers. Fillers. Procedures. Clothing. Hair accessories. Hair products. Everything to conceal the reality of who we are. And my instruction to everybody was: I want there to be no concealing of anything.”

The 65-year-old star continued: “I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide the reality.”

“That was my goal. I have never felt more free creatively and physically.”

While people have assumed that her belly in the Oscar-winning film Everything Everywhere All at Once was a prosthetic, it was her real stomach that Curtis wanted to show.

In 2018, the award-winning actress sat down with journalist Tina Brown for the Women in the World Salon event and spoke about being excluded from roles due to her race.

“I have a career that’s probably comparable to Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Sigourney Weaver.”

 

“They all came out of Yale, they came out of Juilliard, they came out of NYU. They had the same path as me, and yet I am nowhere near them. Not as far as money, not as far as job opportunities, nowhere close to it,” said Viola, who graduated from Juilliard.

She also addressed the lack of opportunities many actresses of color have to publicize their work compared to white actresses.

“You’ll have a Shailene Woodley, who’s fabulous. And she may have had 37 magazine covers in one year. 37!”

“And then you’ll have someone — a young actress of color who’s on her same level of talent and everything. And she may get four.”

Despite the impulse many women feel to dye their white hair as they age, some choose to embrace their natural strands and show them off.

Dame Helen Mirren has long rocked a stylish grey bob, and has called for people to recognise her hair as a “positive as opposed to a negative.”

“I think women were just so terrified of having white or grey hair because it immediately put them into a different category,” the actress told People.

“And of course, you are in that age group. I’m sorry, but you are! So, why not just embrace it, go along with it and welcome it? Make it a positive thing as opposed to a negative thing.”

The two-time Oscar winner revealed that she was deemed "not pretty enough" by male executives to do nude scenes, which prevented her from getting several roles.

"I have never conformed to the shape or look of someone they might want to see naked," she told The Times.

Admitting that she never had the traditional slim figure associated with Hollywood actresses, she added: “To be truly honest, I will never ever be happy with my body. It will never happen. I was brainwashed too early on. I cannot undo those neural pathways."

She may not accept her figure but, at 63, she was able to bare it all on screen in the film Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, an experience she met with a "healthy terror" and that many deemed empowering.

In the film, she plays a widow who is exploring her intimate side with a younger man. Curiously, her character, Nancy, shares Thompson’s body image issues.

“But in the movie, at that point, Nancy’s body has just given her these seconds of pure pleasure and she is marveling at it—not ‘it’ as it looks, but ‘it’ as it has become to her. A place where she can be happy,” the actress described.

In 2023, the Barbie actress reflected on the early moments of her career, when her “averaged sized body” was described as “curvy” by the media and praised for setting a new standard for women.

“Not that I care, but it's like, that's insane that we thought that was so groundbreaking,” America told Elle.

"I was Hollywood’s version of imperfect, which seems so ridiculous... I don't feel alone in that either.”

“There are so many women who were called brave, just because they are people in bodies."

Hilary Duff slammed body-shamers by sharing a photo that would be edited out (or kept untouched and ridiculed) if it was featured on a magazine cover.

In 2017, the Disney star posted a picture of herself in a swimsuit enjoying a day out on the beach with her son, which she shared “on behalf of young girls, women, and mothers of all ages."

"Since websites and magazines love to share 'celeb flaws' — well I have them! My body has given me the greatest gift of my life: Luca, five years ago,” Hilary wrote.

“I'm turning 30 in September and my body is healthy and gets me where I need to go.”

“Ladies, lets be proud of what we've got and stop wasting precious time in the day wishing we were different, better, and unflawed.”

During the 2017 Beautycon Festival, Zendaya referred to herself as “Hollywood’s acceptable version of a Black girl,” a reality she felt needed to change.

 

"As a Black woman, as a light-skinned Black woman, it's important that I'm using my privilege, my platform to show you how much beauty there is in the African American community,” the Emmy-nominated actress said.

 

“It's about creating those opportunities. Sometimes you have to create those paths. And that's with anything, Hollywood, art, whatever."

In 2023, Charlize opened up about how men and women’s aging processes are perceived differently, arguing that men are believed to “age like fine wine and women like cut flowers.”

“I despise that concept, and I want to fight against it, but I also think women want to age in a way that feels right to them,” the 48-year-old actress told Allure.

The Mad Max: Fury Road star believes that people should be more “empathetic” with each individual’s aging journey and quit making uncalled-for comments about their appearance.

She also described that, on several occasions, people have asked whether she had undergone cosmetic procedures because she looked different.

"My face is changing, and I love that my face is changing and aging. [But] people think I had a facelift.”

“They're like, 'What did she do to her face?' I'm like, 'B**ch, I'm just aging! It doesn't mean I got bad plastic surgery. This is just what happens.'"

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, the 21-year-old actress spoke about the lack of roles in Hollywood for people of Latin descent.

"As a child actor, there are two jobs that you can get: You're either the younger version of someone, or you're playing somebody's daughter – and there were just not many leading Hispanic actors who I could be that for,” Jenna explained.

The Wednesday star revealed that she couldn’t access many roles because she “didn’t look a certain way,” which over time made her dislike her appearance.

"I wanted to dye my hair blonde so that I would look like Cinderella,” she continued.

Ultimately, she decided to ignore the pressure to adhere to such unattainable beauty standards.

"I thought, 'I don’t want other young girls to look up at the screen and feel like they have to change their appearance to be deemed beautiful or worthy.'"

"I want all people of Latin descent to be able to see themselves on screen. I want to feel that I could open doors for other people."

Jonah Hill has spoken about the ways in which the press has contributed to his insecurities regarding his body.

On Instagram, he shared screenshots of a Daily Mail story that featured paparazzi photos of him at the beach.

"I don’t think I ever took my shirt off in a pool until I was in my mid 30s even in front of family and friends."

"Probably would have happened sooner if my childhood insecurities weren’t exacerbated by years of public mockery about my body by press and interviewers," the Django Unchained actor wrote.

"So the idea that the media tries to play me, by stalking me while surfing and printing photos like this, and it can’t [faze] me anymore is dope. I’m 37 and finally love and accept myself."

When Kelly Clarkson showed the actor a picture of himself shirtless in Magic Mike XXL during an interview on her show, Channing responded, "That might be the reason why I didn't want to do a third one, is I have to look like that."

Channing described his muscular figure as not “natural” or “healthy.”

Preparing for the role wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. Speaking of his diet, he shared that, "You have to starve yourself. I don't think when you're that lean, it's actually healthy."

In a previous appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, the 21 Jump Street actor admitted, "As someone who works out for a job, I promise you I would not look like this unless I had to be naked in most of my movies, mostly."

"At some point, I have to get better at acting so I don't have to be naked in all of them,” he joked.

Florence spoke up against the pressure that women in Hollywood face from an early age to look thin, and said that her refusal to “comply” with such standards was “confusing” to people.

 "Body image for women is a major thing. From the moment you start growing thighs and bums and boobs and all of it, everything starts changing. And your relationship with food starts changing,” the Little Women actress told Vogue.

 

“Women in Hollywood, especially young women in Hollywood, are obviously putting themselves in all these ways in order to get whatever opportunity that they need to get because that's just the way that it's been.”

“I think I definitely put my foot down in that aspect. I love food."

In a 2021 Vanity Fair interview, the former WWE star revealed producers asked him to “slim down” to increase his chances of being casted during his early days in Hollywood.

“At that time, when there was no blueprint for somebody who looked like me, talk, walk like me...half Black, half Samoan.”

“I look how I look, I talk how I talk... Well, you buy into that sh**, as I did, until one of two things is gonna happen."

"You're either gonna continue to go down that road, and that path, and you're gonna be miserable (...) Or, the other thing that's gonna happen, you're gonna say, 'F*** this sh**. I'm gonna be me, and we're gonna see what happens.'”

“And I think in that authenticity moment...a funny thing happened in the world of professional wrestling, and a funny thing happened in the world of Hollywood. Both industries conformed to my authenticity and allowed me to be me."

In 2015, Gina told Glamour that she doesn’t feel insecure upon noting that a magazine photo editor has decided to photoshop her pictures after a shoot.

"After a photo shoot, if I get photoshopped to make me 'look better' and it doesn't look like me, I remind myself, those are their standards, definitely not mine,” the Jane The Virgin star expressed.

However, this doesn’t mean that they never affect her self-esteem.

“I am not superhuman. I constantly work on not letting those images push away the reminder that I am beautiful the way I am.”

The two-time Grammy winner revealed that she felt her “anxiety spiking” whenever she had to dress up and appear on TV, which made her turn to meditation and medication to alleviate the pain.

“And some of it is just rage at what women — and I don't want to be exclusive, it's not just women, it's certainly people across the spectrum of gender — but it feels like we have been taught to try and hide that we're aging from everybody,” the Love Song singer told Glamour.

“It's a very cruel place to be inside yourself, because it is an essential truth of how life works, and we're almost being asked to deny it.”

“So the stress of trying to conceal this completely natural evolution and this natural stage is just f***ed up."

The Bad Idea Right? singer-songwriter spoke about her struggles to accept her appearance in a media that values “European'' physical traits.

Born in Murrieta, California, the three-time Grammy winner is of Filipino descent.

"It's hard for anyone to grow up in this media where it feels like if you don't have European features and blond hair and blue eyes, you're not traditionally pretty.

“I felt that a lot — since I don't look exactly like the girl next door in all these movies, I'm not attractive,” Olvia told The Guardian.

"That actually took me a while to shake off. It's something I’m still shaking off now," she admitted.

In a since-deleted tweet in 2020, a fan wrote to Lili to ask her if she considered that "TV shows like [Riverdale] aimed at teenagers are contributing to unrealistic body expectations [and] body image issues."

Lili replied, "Actually, not everyone on this show is perfectly chiseled. And even I feel intimidated by the physique of my surrounding cast mates sometimes when I have to do bra/underwear scenes.”

She continued: “But I have come to terms with my body and that I'm not the kind of person you would see walking on a runway during fashion week. I have bigger boobs, I have cellulite on my thighs/butt, and my stomach sticks out rather than curves in.”

While she admitted to “struggling” with the way she looked on a daily basis, she also expressed her desire for women to feel represented when they see her on the small screen.

“I want other young women to see my body on TV and feel comfort in the fact that I'm not a size 0. And I'm not a perfect hourglass shape.”

 

In September, the actress took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to say that there needs to be more “averaged sized arms” represented in mainstream media.

“We’ve glamorized these skinny arms that, for most of us, can only be achieved if you’re a literal adolescent,” she wrote.

When she went to auditions, the Girls Trip actress and comedian would sometimes leave her phone recording inside her purse to hear what casting directors had to say when she was gone.

Among the reasons she was turned down for roles, she heard: "She is not as urban as I thought she would be," “She's so ghetto," "Her boobs aren't big enough," and "I really think we should just go with a white girl. This role should be changed to white."

Haddish shared that she used the insulting feedback for inspiration for her profession.

“I want to hear so that I can grow,” she said. “And also so that I can write jokes about it and I can use it to my advantage.”

The British actor questioned what he refers to as “the false narrative of perfection” about how entertainers are expected to look.

Discussing his wish to tell more realistic stories, he said “It's not only race to me. It's aesthetic of people. Why do leads always have to be muscular and ripped?"

"That kind of sometimes shows to me that the guy has too much time on his hands. What real war hero of history [looks that way?]”

“It's about rebranding the way in which we are fed a false narrative of perfection."

His recent movie, They Cloned Tyrone, showcases his efforts to take a traditional story and recontextualize it through a new lens, one that’s culturally significant to him and to a broader audience.

“The aliens ain't landing in no suburban white neighborhood,” he said of the sci-fi film’s plot. “They're not landing in a multicultural city, you know what I mean? They going all the way to Black folk.”

The actress and model, crowned Miss Universe in 2000, said she’s thrilled about the expanding definition of what society considers attractive, but made it clear she believes there’s still a long way to go.

 

She told Allure: “You see so many women, different sizes, modeling, acting, taking their strength, but it's the mindset that needs to change, of society, of men, of people—that view where a woman in a plus size should not be a check in the box.”

“Or a woman of color should not be a check in the box. Or a woman shouldn't be a check in the box.”

“Everyone doesn't look the same way, so the world needs to be trained to see beauty differently.”