Anna Friel reveals Hollywood pressure on looks

Anna Friel reveals Hollywood pressure on looks (Image credit: AP/PA Photos)

Anna Friel has confessed she has conformed to Hollywood pressures to look good to get work. The 33-year-old British actress - who got her break in the US in TV show Pushing Daisies and is now starring in action blockbuster Land Of The Lost with Will Ferrell - told The Independent she has to stay thin and attractive to get roles. Anna said: "When I first arrived in Los Angeles, it took some time before I realised that you do have to conform to a type - you do have to stay slim, and you can't make excuses. "Looking good is a serious business and you have to make a decision to go along with it or else you're just not going to get the work. In the beginning, I had such an awful time that I just wanted to run back home. But, looking back today, I'm glad I stuck it out. "I never aspired to be just the pretty girl because, if that's all you're known for, then you're going to have a pretty short career. Mature actresses like Susan Sarandon or Judi Dench are far more interesting to me." Anna and partner David Thewlis live in Los Angeles with their three-year-old daughter Gracie. *Anna stars in The Street on BBC One on Monday, July 20*

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.