Female actors aren’t the only ones being held to Hollywood standards. Sam Claflin told The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday, June 2, that he’s also been body-shamed while on set. So much so, he gets anxiety leading up to auditions and will not eat for “weeks.”
“I read in an interview recently and I think it’s absolutely true: men have it just as bad,” the Me Before You star, 30, told the publication. “Well, not just as bad but they get it bad and it’s never talked about. I remember doing one job when they literally made me pull my shirt up and were grabbing my fat and going, ‘You need to lose a bit of weight.’ This other time they were slapping me. I felt like a piece of meat.”
The British hunk admitted that it affected his confidence.
“I’m not saying it’s anywhere near as bad as what women go through but I, as an actor approaching each job, am insecure — especially when I have to take my top off — and so nervous,” he added. “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.”
Claflin concluded that Hollywood’s standards aren’t normal nowadays.
“In the ’50s and ’60s, it was never an issue,” he said. “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.”
