Are most actresses very very slim in real life?

[Mitford1789]

I saw a well known actress a few days ago, standing behind her in the queue for a coffee. She was dressed down, however was clearly very pretty in person. However I was taken aback by how slim she was. I would say she was slightly taller than average, not a tiny person if you know what I mean. But so so slim. Do you think most famous actresses/singers etc are like this? Maybe I’m very naive.

@BakedTattie after kids defo surgery

Emma Thompson looks normal, slim and healthy in real life.

Emma is fully aware of the problem & said the below about the pressure in Hollywood

"“It is evil what is going on and happening out there, and it is getting worse…The anorexia… there are so many kids, girls, and boys now, and actresses who are very very thin that are into their 30’s and simply don’t eat. They don’t eat.”

She also threatened to leave a film when they pressured another actress to lose weight.

@dorangme

in the 1970's it was shocking for anyone to weigh 10 stone,

Did their height not make difference? My dad is 6ft 5, he would look very strange at 10 stone.

I think this was true of women, not men. Women were quite a bit shorter on average, and yes, 10 stone would have been considered quite heavy. I remember weighing myself when I was 19, I weighed 10 stone 4 llbs and was a size 14. I was mortified and went on a diet immediately. Now I know that was a healthy weight for me (BMI 24) but I felt massively fat. I would guess nearly all young women were on the lower half of healthy BMI, though we didn't refer to BMI then. You also didn't many extremely thin people either, but everyone ate 'carbs' as part of their normal diet.

@Marguerite2000 how tall are you?

I wasn't born in the 70s but looking at photos & tv there certainly seem to be less extremes & more "normal" looking sized particularly amongst older people.

I come from 2 tall families so 10 stone would not be heavy amongst the women I know. I think people forgot the impact height has & that UK women have grown taller over the decades.

BakedTattie Probably lots of diet and exercise, not necessarily surgery. My stomach went back to completely flat after DS1, we lived halfway up a big hill, and I don't drive...pushing the pram was great for my abs. (I don't live on a hill anymore so have a little pouch after DS2 )

I've only met/bumped into 2 male actors and they both looked the same as on camera.

As a tall person people constantly underestimate my weight, one friend thought because I looked slimmer & was a smaller size than her I should weigh much less then her. I'm 10" taller than her!

In the 70s a size 8 was considered very small. That size 8 is probably now a size 2 or 4. There weren’t many clothes in size 8. Vanity sizing has adjusted everything upwards.

You can’t really compare people like Judi Dench, Helen Mirren etc with younger folk. Bodies change as they age and the flat stomach you might have had pre menopause is unachievable in later life.

I really hope that young kids are more aware of photoshopping/ camera tricks now though. That pic of Kendall Jenner above - she's taken it in front of a long thin mirror wearing high heels - that will make even a super model with an already killer body look even taller and slimmer than she really is!

DD is an extremely slim, long-limbed relatively tall teen. She has recently graduated into a UK size 6. I did clock when she was a size 4 (UK sizing) that she was essentially the size of a lot of American actresses. Well readers I would say that was early teen size. Not normal for a grown-woman.

I lived in NY and saw Natalie Portman.
She clearly has a small frame,
But looked like a 13 year old girl.

Unrelated to weight, I came face to face with Demi Moore at some changing rooms and can tell you she has the most beautiful green eyes I’ve ever seen.

@Marguerite2000

I suspect that it's not that many actresses are thin but that most people now are overweighf, so the perception of normal has changed

No I don't think this is true. I grew up in the '70s, pre 'obesity epidemic' and we still noticed people like Olivia Newton John (in Grease) being exceptionally thin.

She looked normal. (I'm older than you!)

@emptyplinth

Yes, they're usually quite short and always very thin

I understand why they would be thin (because the camera adds pounds) but why short? Is it to make the male actors look tall in comparison? Mind you a lot of male actors are short too. Why is that?

@Foxyloxy1plus1

In the 70s a size 8 was considered very small. That size 8 is probably now a size 2 or 4. There weren’t many clothes in size 8. Vanity sizing has adjusted everything upwards.

You can’t really compare people like Judi Dench, Helen Mirren etc with younger folk. Bodies change as they age and the flat stomach you might have had pre menopause is unachievable in later life.

A size 10 was a 24 inch waist and 36 hips. I wore a 10 for my wedding in the 1980s.

Now, a size 10 can be anything up to a 30 inch waist.

But please stop blaming the menopause for weight gain! It's harder to maintain a healthy weight as we age, as we lose muscle, and weight distribution changes, but not impossible by any means.

[quote Lurcherloves]@Marguerite2000 how tall are you?[/quote]
I was 5'4" (shrunk a bit with age, lol).
I was probably one of the tallest in my class at school.

I wasn't born in the 70s but looking at photos & tv there certainly seem to be less extremes & more "normal" looking sized particularly amongst older people. I recently rewatched All the President's Men and was shocked at how very slim both Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman were.

In the past, it was very unusual to have even one visibly overweight child in a class/year group. I can recall that when DD left primary school there were at least five DC in her class who would be classed as overweight. One now has an eating disorder and has gone very much to the other extreme :-(.

I was once very thin, I used to shop for clothes in gap kids I look back at pictures now and I’m horrified. My BMI was just about healthy, these women are 100% lower than healthy BMI. I dread to think how they keep themselves so tiny.

Two things come to mind with this conversation

1 Most of the actors named are young. Younger women can be slim and healthy.

2 Most of the women named here are TV and film actors and some are in Hollywood.

There is pressure to be slim, yes.

BUT it's also quite possible that naturally slim and pretty women decide to make a career for themselves as actors and trade on their looks.

I definitely agree in the 70s and earlier there were less extremes. A size 8 was considered very slim in a way we'd now see someone who was a size 0-2. If you look at what's healthy and natural it's not ideal to have a BMI less than 20 (unless you do have a very slight frame), although technically still within the healthy range.

A lot of these celebs mentioned know they would be caned if they put on an ounce especially as tv and the camera adds weight anyway.
I'm sure many do starve themselves or just work out if they feel it's a ' fat' day.
Will of iron must be needed ( and homes big enough for their own gym and pool etc ! )
Different world.

@sadperson16

I think its terribly sad that women have to starve themselves. Didn't Joanna Lumley say she " doesn't do food"

I would love to see the whole beautiful range of shapes and sizes in the media, including some older post menopausal bodies that aren't size 4.

Joanna only has one small meal a day, she has an orange for lunch. She was a model before acting, and had to stay extremely thin .

I used to work in "showbiz" (not technically showbiz but an industry where I came into contact with lots of famous people from showbiz to political). On the whole people look a lot slimmer in real life than they do on screen - to the point that they look gaunt when you meet them. Also shorter and older......

I've been watching Fargo and Billy Bob Thornton looks so so thin and tiny in it. If it's true about the camera adding ten lb he must be absolutely miniscule irl.

I'm sure it was from about the 70s that the fashion for uber-thin actresses started. If you watch the original James Bond films, Carry On films etc the actresses are certainly slim but look a lot more "normal" and have some wobbly bits.

I then watched the original Suspiria the other day and the actresses almost vanish when they turn sideways.

@Meandyouandyouandme

Not an actress but I saw Graham Norton close up once and was surprised by how slim he was, not that he looks big on TV, but was quite slim in real life.

He doesn't look at all big on TV? 🤔

I've seen him a fair few times (I spend time each summer near to where he's originally from in Ireland & he's often around). He looks perfectly normal. Not big, not exceptionally thin or anything.

I used to work with actors. Male actors are always shorter than you think and most of them lie about their height on their Spotlight CV. 6’ means 5’10”-11”. 5’11” means 5’9”.

I was also embarrassingly far into my twenties before I realised that the trope of journalists detailing all the masses of food that their female interviewee ate during their interview was a total fallacy. Julia Roberts’s character in Notting Hill was the first time I heard anyone be honest about what it takes to stay so slim.