This Monday Elle magazine celebrated an event called 'Women in Hollywood', at which they showed solidarity with the various victims of sexual abuse that has only recently come to light. Reese Witherspoon shared her firsthand experience of an incident she suffered through when she was just 16 years old. The actress closed her speech with a few motivating words for young actresses in the industry, reaffirming that they are not alone.
Reese Witherspoon wasn't the only star who shared her worst experience in Hollywood. Jennifer Lawrence also revealed a humiliating situation she went through during the casting for a film. The producers of the film (whose name she didn't mention) instructed her to lose weight.
"One girl before me had already been fired for not losing enough weight fast enough", began Lawrence, as she spoke of the time she was made to stand naked in a line alongside other women, with only "paste-ons" covering their intimate parts. The actress also mentioned how the other girls were a lot thinner than her, before continuing, "after that degrading and humiliating lineup, the female producer told me I should use the naked photos of myself as inspiration for my diet." In short, the experience Lawrence re-told is a horrendous one that no women should have to live through.
Unfortunately, things don't end there. After becoming concerned over the extreme diet she was required to undertake, Lawrence innocently decided to voice her issues with another producer. The response she received was that: "he didn't know why everyone thought I was so fat, he thought I was perfectly 'fuckable'".
Silence
At the time of the incident, Lawrence had not yet got her role as Katniss in 'The Hunger Games', and so wasn't as well known as she is now. For her, speaking out about her experience wasn't going to solve her problems. "I couldn't have gotten a producer or a director or a studio head fired. I let myself be treated a certain way because I felt like I had to for my career." She "just wanted a career" and like many other women was made to believe keeping quiet was the only way to do that.
