For Jamie Lee Curtis, she will no longer try to abide by Hollywood’s unfair and downright sexist beauty standards.
When discussing her new film Everything Everywhere All At Once, Curtis opened up about how she no longer plans to “conceal” her body and wants to be physically authentic going forward.
Sharing her interview with Entertainment Weekly on her Instagram, the 63-year-old revealed that she’s been “sucking in” her stomach since she was 11 years old, and now, she plans to stop.
“In the world, there is an industry—a billion-dollar, trillion-dollar industry—about hiding things,” she wrote in her caption, alongside a photo of herself in character.
“Concealers. Body shapers. Fillers. Procedures. Clothing. Hair accessories. Hair products. Everything to conceal the reality of who we are. And my instruction to everybody was: I want there to be no concealing of anything.”
She continued, “I’ve been sucking my stomach in since I was 11, when you start being conscious of boys and bodies, and the jeans are super tight.”
“I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide the reality. That was my goal. I have never felt more free creatively and physically.”
In the film, Curtis plays an IRS inspector opposite Crazy Rich Asian‘s star Michelle Yeoh. Yeoh plays the manager of a laundromat in Los Angeles who happens to have access to multiple dimensions, which can only means one thing: it’s her responsibility to save the world from evil forces.
While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the film’s director and writer Daniel Schneinert explained how excited Curtis was for her role from the very beginning.
“There was one photo of an IRS auditor that Dan Kwan had found online,” he explained.
“I mean, maybe she worked in a DMV, I don’t know—but this one photo, Jamie was like, ‘That’s incredible, please let me be her, please, please, please, please.’ And that photo became the reference for the hairdo and the outfit.”
Naturally, it’s refreshing any time that an A-list star publicly calls out the harmful standards that Hollywood places upon women to be a certain, often smaller, size. And according to film’s second director, Daniel Kawn, the “fat suit” that the public would assume Curtis is wearing in the film is actually her natural body.
“Everyone assumes that her belly in the movie is a prosthetic, but it’s actually her real belly. She was grateful that she was allowed to just let it out.”
While Curtis’ decision to empower herself and her body is a step in the right direction, not just for women in Hollywood but for women everywhere, there’s still a long way to go before this becomes the norm. There shouldn’t be such a shocked response to a woman deciding to do as she wishes with her body. It should always be the way that society sees women’s bodies—as their own, and beautiful in their own individuality.
Everything Everywhere All At Once will be hitting cinemas across Australia from April 14, 2022. Curious? Check out the trailer down below:
