Troian Bellisario gets personal in her upcoming film. The Pretty Little Liars actress wrote and stars in the drama Feed, which is based on her own struggles with an eating disorder.
Bellisario, who wed Suits actor Patrick J. Adams in December 2016, opened up about her battle against anorexia with Interview magazine.
“I found there were so many people who thought that it was about losing weight or being skinny, and I couldn’t quite get them to understand that it was about control on a very, very literal level,” the 31-year-old said. “I couldn’t get anyone — even the people who loved me the most, even my boyfriend or my mother or my father — to understand what that experience was truly like for me.”
Bellisario previously opened up about her struggle in an interview with Seventeen magazine. “I started self-harming when I was a junior. I would withhold food or withhold going out with my friends, based on how well I did that day in school,” she said in January 2014. “[I] didn’t know what was right and what was wrong. … So, I think I created this bizarre system of checks and balances to create order in my world. But it really backfired.”
Troian plays Olivia in Feed opposite Harry Potter’s Tom Felton. The Tommy Bertelsen-directed film debuts on July 18.
If you or anyone you know need help, contact the National Eating Disorders Association helpline at 1-800-931-2237.
