It's a shame that Hollywood results in women ruining their looks whilst the men carry on regardless (Wicked)

[ByCoolWriter]

I've been looking at videos of the lovely Cynthia from the Wicked movie a few years ago. She looked wonderful and healthy. Now her face is all sharp angles. The same for Ariana who looks dangerously thin. I've heard many say that it's the gruelling film schedules etc but I don't see the male members looking like a lettuce leaf would fill them up.
Isn't it sad that actresses still feel this need to look a certain way whilst men don't

@MrsSkylerWhite

I think he has a blood cancer.

It's well documented that Joaquin and Bale chose to drastically change their bodies because of their egotistical method acting bullshit. Its nothing like the pressure women actors clearly feel to avoid weight gain and ageing.

The clue is in their faces, not their bodies. Plenty of people have a skinny body type naturally, and that's not abnormal, it's in the face and the lines down the side of the mouth, I can spot it a mile off. The facial 'tells' of eating disorders reverse as soon as you go towards a slightly healthier weight which is very slim as opposed to extremely concerningly low BMI. Natalie Dyer from Stranger Things has a similar aesthetic.

I remember a story about The Devil Wears Prada. I think Anne Hathaway herself told it. After they cast Anne, word got back to Meryl that the producers were pressuring Anne (who was already slim) to lose about 10 kg. Meryl became very cross and used her star power to push back - she said they had to stop pressuring Anne, or she (Meryl) would walk. The film had only been financed because of Meryl’s agreeing to do it, so the threat worked. But this sort of outcome is rare, sadly.

I thought Nicole Kidman looked worryingly thin on GN and her face looked different. It’s so sad that they feel they need to do this/or pressured to do it

Yes, it's very depressing and unhelpful isn't it? I don't know if people think they look unwell and say they look amazing to be polite or if they really think it?

Nicole Kidman looked very odd on Graham Norton last night.

Such a shame as a little bit of work often looks good but it goes too far and they all end up with the weird mouth puffy face look.

They don't look young. They look old but having had work done.

It’s not just women but it is almost always women.

And men do it for the roles. Women are expected to do it for everything.

I'm sure men in Hollywood are under extreme pressure over their looks too, many will be using steroids for starters (and some have confessed to doing so, Arnie didn't get that big by accident). Generally, though there are more parts for men who are a bit tubbier and older, such as Hugh Grant who has a charming but lined and aged face, and whose career has never been better. Nicole knows this would not happen to her and has acted accordingly, even though she cannot express emotion whatsoever.

Take it from me, it isn't the film schedules. My son's ex is an actress. Even if the filming was grueling, there is a very long period of editing/post production after shooting has finished. If they had lost weight due to the gruelling film schedules, they would have recovered by now. If anything, they look even thinner now than they did in the film.

She couldn't really move her top lip when she spoke. It looked very odd.

I suppose it's too late for them all to stop and grow old gracefully

She looks in her late 40s there!

I'm starting to think that they know they don't look young, and that they know it is an unusual, weird plastic look but to them ANYTHING is better than looking wrinkly.

We saw Wicked this evening and Ariana Grande is so fantastic in it. But it's sort of tainted by the fact that she looks like she has an eating disorder.

There are so many great songs, but my mind kept wandering to speculate on her diet, exercise regime, sleep regimen etc.

BTW I'm not some super-fan, just a concerned viewer...

Ariana is clearly quite poorly and Cynthia seems to have visibly shrunk. They might not be the best influence on each other but there is something about Ariana that is more worrying as she seems to be trying to retain an almost child-like figure and status.

The thing is though she’s generating headlines for her weight, getting attention for it. If she’s in depths of anorexia, getting out of it will be that much harder because of the attention she’s getting.

Cynthia Erivo is very clearly wearing facial prosthetics in the movie! That is not what she normally looks like. She is absolutely gorgeous.

I'm sure she was given uppers and downers to see her through filming.

Not her own "eating issues" but the studio restricting her food intake and giving her amphetamines and sleeping pills.

Both of them have visibility lost a lot of weight. Ariana maybe started before Cynthia, but its obvious on both of them.

They haven't lost weight for a role. They have a very intense, quit odd dynamic such maybe for cameras, but if not is quite bizarre. It looks very much like a competitive ED

I'm not sure this is totally fair.

While I'd agree the pressure on women is greater, as far as looking young, and also I think the ideal male body has traditionally been something that can be achieved in a relatively healthy way. (That's changing though, the kind of Hollywood male star body these days is not so healthy and also actors increasingly are maintaining it as the standard.)

Even so, it is not all the women, or even all the A list actresses that go to these kinds of lengths. Nicole Kidman is a good example, and interesting because she looks her age, and is playing roles for a woman of her age. For all the work she's had done, she does not seem to be in a better place than actresses who have retained a look that's a little more natural.

I think that part of what happens is that surrounded by the weird standards of Hollywood, a lot of people start to have a distorted idea of what looks normal.

Weird thread. Let's show concern at the pressure and scorn thrown at actresses and then all jump in to rip on the appearance of one of those actresses. Shame on you all.

I find it sad for a person when the surgeries have went to far and they're rendered looking less than human.

Ariana Grande looks like my dd did when she was in full throe of anorexia earlier this year. Dd is recovering slowly and has started putting on weight again after plateauing for months but still very mentally unwell. I was thinking of taking dd to see the film. I will be giving it a miss.

So what's best to do, stay silent about it?

Posters are quite rightly shocked at the emancipated appearance of young women pressurised in the shallow world of Hollywood - that's not ripping into them, it's commenting on the way those women are sucked into a world where they have no option but to starve themselves almost to death, and encouraged to do so by Hollywood, which is a cruel and exploitative environment for young women.

They are putting themselves in grave danger and setting themselves up for a later life of ill health - it's equally as bad as being overweight. I'd say it's positive that women on here are recognising that and raising the awareness.