Emma Thompson: Pressure on actresses to be thin is 'evil'

Two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson has taken aim at Hollywood for pressurising actresses to lose weight and stay unnaturally thin

Emma Thompson has branded the pressure put on actresses to be thin as 'evil' and said the problem is getting worse.

The two-time Oscar-winner said she knew female stars who 'simply don’t eat' as she spoke about anorexia in the film industry.

Emma, 57, revealed she once threatened to quit the 2008 British film Brideshead Revisited when a co-star was told to lose weight.

In an interview on Swedish chat show Skavlan, she said: “The anorexia – there are so many kids, girls and boys now, and actresses who are very, very thin, who are into their 30s, who simply don’t eat.

“There was a wonderful actress I was working with on something called Brideshead Revisited.

“The producers said to her, ‘Will you lose some weight?’ She was absolutely exquisite.

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

“It’s evil, what’s happening, what’s going on out there, and it’s getting worse.”

Emma said one of the reasons she had never moved to Los Angeles was because she felt she was deemed 'too fat' when she visited.

“It is a strange place and I couldn’t live there,” she said.

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