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.

Many actresses mentioned are 5ft2 or 5ft3. I'm just saying it is possible to be that height and slim while eating a varied diet, low carb, high protein, weight lifting.
My nephew is sculpted think love Island he has a tiny waist, he has to eat 4500 calories daily to maintain his physique he hasn't any fat.

I'm saying I don't understand why any woman who's not naturally skinny would pursue traditional fashion modelling.

Acting is different since acting is about portraying characters, learning stagecraft, learning all the different skills necessary to immerse yourself in a character.

Modelling is just about how you look. Why pursue a career that's all about being skinny if you're not naturally skinny and have to half kill yourself?

It's like trying to become a professional bodybuilder if you're not naturally muscular.

I'm saying I don't understand why any woman who's not naturally skinny would pursue traditional fashion modelling.

I'm confused by your opinion of naturally skinny is?

At 9.5 stone I have a BMI of 19 & at 8 stone a BMI of 16. 16 is underweight.

Most models are spotted young & yet to fully develop. They are trying to maintain being underweight which has nothing to do with being naturally skinny.

I think it's slightly irrelevant to talk about teenagers "eating like a horse" and eating pizza while retaining a 24" (or smaller) waist. Most of the celebrities mentioned arent teenagers!!

It also very much depends on body shape. The supposedly ideal 34-24-34 figure has curves in the right places. I've never had a 34" bust or hips ...but also (when healthy - not when ive been anorexic) never had a 24" waist. Even when I've done a lot of core exercises my waist has been 26" but bust and hips are 30-32. I do not look thin though because I'm short but the point is that some figures (even with drastic weight loss) are difficult to acheive if your natural shape is not predispositioned that way.

It's well known that people don't see themselves as they really are, you don't have to be anorexic for this to be the case.

So it's perfectly possible for a very slim person to meet another very slim person and think "Blimey! She's so thin!"

Models get recruited at very young ages generally, it's ready to be naturally tiny at 15. Then they start to fill out and have to diet to stay smaller than is natural for them.

Easy not ready

A friend’s daughter was a model. She was spotted age 15, and modelled throughout school and for a few years afterwards as a full-time job. She made a lot of money. But at around age 19, there was a lot of pressure from her agency around weight, toning, etc. She had a personal trainer. At 21, she had left the industry and now does something entirely different. She wanted to eat normally and have a more normal lifestyle. The youthful, naturally very slender, gamine look that she had at 15 couldn’t be maintained at age 20.

It's like trying to become a professional bodybuilder if you're not naturally muscular. There's a certain irony there because upthread someone mentioned Sean Connery not being anywhere near as toned as Daniel Craig. Well Sean Connery was a professional bodybuilder at one point in his early career (pre-acting breakthrough).

Times have changed and what is perceived as a desirable body shape has altered too. Look at Ursula Andress emerging from the water in Dr No. she was the ultimate sexy screen siren of her day and yet she's not the same 'lean' as today's Bond actresses.

Remember how Sohie Dahl was touted as a refreshingly 'large' model when she first started (she was still a teen)? It didn't take too many years or being in the public eye for her to lose those kilos though.

Well I'm sorry but if someone really struggles that much to stay slim (not thin), then maybe modelling is simply not the right career for them?

My sister was 5’9 and about 7.5 st at 15. Her shape was constantly commented on “you should be a model”, so my mum took her to london for some meetings with model agencies.

Without exception they all said yes, they’d add her to the books, but she’d need to lose at least half a stone before they’d send her out on auditions.

I think it's slightly irrelevant to talk about teenagers "eating like a horse" and eating pizza while retaining a 24" (or smaller) waist. Most of the celebrities mentioned arent teenagers!!

Of course it is. I can't see how it's helpful for discussion to be centred around your waist should be 24" & if isn't it's because you aren't disciplined & eat junk. It's quite insidious tbh.

Yes, I used to be in the industry and most successful TV and film actresses are extremely thin and eating disorders / obsessive monitoring of diet are rife. I was personally underweight at 5’11” and 9 1/2 stone and it made me really ill with an eating disorder - I have size 9 feet and am not designed to be that thin but even at that weight was on the ‘big’ side for an actress.

In my experience most actresses were either trying to maintain a body weight that was far too low for them (like me) or else were very naturally slim with small frames but were still highly vigilant about their diet, exercise etc. It’s better in the theatre because it really is the case that film makes you look much bigger than you are, but there is so much crossover between the two now that agents don’t really support actresses to have ‘just’ theatre careers.

The sad thing is that being underweight makes you so exhausted all the time that it’s hard to actually be a good actress - it becomes about looking a certain way rather then expressing the stuff of human life.

I'm just saying it is possible to be that height and slim while eating a varied diet, low carb, high protein, weight lifting.
My nephew is sculpted think love Island he has a tiny waist, he has to eat 4500 calories daily to maintain his physique he hasn't any fat

Men are a completely different ball game and not comparable at all.

Men can maintain lower body fat and still be healthy. They also don’t have so many abdominal organs, and a narrower pelvis, so a flat stomach and tiny waist is easier to achieve.

Agree @fizbosshoes.

I recently did the low carb boot camp and got down to a 24" waist. (Now gone back up a bit!) But when I was 14 and weighed 6.5 stone and all my friends remarked on my tiny waist . . . it was also 24." I know this because, I am sorry to say, "vital statistics" were a big thing back then.

How those Victorian ladies got their waists to 18" I will never know. I guess they started young.

Yes - tiny frames, heads usually look out of proportion to bodies

How those Victorian ladies got their waists to 18" I will never know.

Their corsets would literally displace their internal organs!

How those Victorian ladies got their waists to 18" I will never know. I guess they started young

I think people were actually smaller in the 1800s than we are now, but didn’t women achieve the 18” waists by wearing corsets that caused faintness and even broke rib cages??

I agree that many celeb women are incredibly small and thin (unhealthily so) when you meet them in real life. There is a big difference between naturally slim women and these women, who are under huge pressure to look slim even on camera, which does indeed add pounds. I went to a private film showing and ended up seated at a dinner table with several female celebs/actors. I couldn't believe how thin they were -- they were like a different species from your usual slim women that you might see every day. When the food arrived it became obvious that it wasn't easy or straightforward for them to keep at their desired weight. They only toyed with the food on their plates, left most of it, and not one accepted the dessert. I got into a friendly conversation with them about how they stayed slim (obv I did not tell them I found them worryingly thin!) and they all agreed they 'didn't eat carbs' and were constantly hungry. They said that if they didn't keep to such a strict diet they would look fat on camera. In actuality they look healthily slim on camera. Not so in real life, where they looked gaunt and rather fragile.

@Fizbosshoes

I think it's slightly irrelevant to talk about teenagers "eating like a horse" and eating pizza while retaining a 24" (or smaller) waist. Most of the celebrities mentioned arent teenagers!!

It also very much depends on body shape. The supposedly ideal 34-24-34 figure has curves in the right places. I've never had a 34" bust or hips ...but also (when healthy - not when ive been anorexic) never had a 24" waist. Even when I've done a lot of core exercises my waist has been 26" but bust and hips are 30-32. I do not look thin though because I'm short but the point is that some figures (even with drastic weight loss) are difficult to acheive if your natural shape is not predispositioned that way.

Until I was in my late 20s, these were my measurements.

I still had people (both my mum and men) telling me I was fat/too big/should lose weight.

@Badyboo
Sorry, I wasn’t including men in my assessment. I do still disagree with you about women. You may well be right about the average weight being 10 stone, but it would still have been considered overweight in those days (average weight today is about 11 stone for women and we know that a high proportion of people in the UK now are overweight). My mum (5 ft 4) was horrified if she went over 9 stone, many of my friends were 8 to 8 1/2 stone and similar height to my mum. None of them were exceptionally skinny - slim yes, but certainly not underweight and definitely not unhealthily thin. I’m not suggesting that 10 stone was unhealthily heavy either, more that our ideas of ‘normal’ weight have changed over the past 40 years. So much depends on bone structure, etc, too. As @Knittingnanny says, clothes sizes and body shapes are very different these days too.

I'm confused by your opinion of naturally skinny is?

I'm 5'5 and slightly over 8 1/2 stone (meaning my BMI is 20), a dress size 6-8, and my waist is naturally around 24-25inches. I'm in my 40s.

I don't consider myself skinny, just naturally slim-ish.

The idea that my BMI of 20 makes me super duper skinny or that most professional models half my age would need to starve to achieve my waist size is very strange.

I've worked with actresses with waist sizes of 19-20 inches. That's super skinny. Not having a BMI of 20.

I can't see how it's helpful for discussion to be centred around your waist should be 24" & if isn't it's because you aren't disciplined & eat junk.

Who's mentioned anything about "junk" or "discipline"?? No one has said everyone should have a 24 inch waist, that's simply not true. All anyone's said is question why women who aren't naturally skinny would pursue a job that demands extreme thinness.

When Anna Maxwell Martin stripped off at the school gate in Motherland I was surprised at how skinny she was. Washboard stomach and not an ounce of fat on her. She's normally wearing a duvet coat so you can't see how thin she is.

@Darkbrownistheriver Older women tend to have smaller frames than young women today. Not all, but it is a trend. They should weigh more to be a healthy weight.
My gran's shoulders and hips were much narrower than mine, she should weigh less than me to be a healthy weight.

The idea that my BMI of 20 makes me super duper skinny or that most professional models half my age would need to starve to achieve my waist size is very strange.

It's not an idea though as plenty of models have discussed it. Why is it strange? You keep ignoring shape & height. At a BMI of 20 you have a 24" waist, I need a BMI of 16 for that. Cant you see the difference?