Sam Claflin Now Feels 'Insecure' After Being Body Shamed On Set
Hunger Games alum Sam Clafiln is adding himself to the list of celebrities who have been body shamed by Hollywood, going as far to say his past experiences have made him "insecure" about each new job he takes.
"I read in an interview recently and I think it's absolutely true: men have it just as bad," the 30-year-old actor told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Well, not just as bad but they get it bad and it's never talked about. I remember doing one job when they literally made me pull my shirt up and were grabbing my fat and going, 'You need to lose a bit of weight.' This other time they were slapping me. I felt like a piece of meat."
Claflin went on to slightly backtrack his comments on whether men really have it as bad as women. "I'm not saying it's anywhere near as bad as what women go through," he said.
But, of course, there was a "but." "But I, as an actor approaching each job, am insecure — especially when I have to take my top off — and so nervous," he said. "I get really worked up to the point where I spend hours and hours in the gym and not eating for weeks to achieve what I think they're going for."
In fact, Claflin thinks it's only recently become a terrible problem for male actors in Hollywood. "In the '50s and '60s, it was never an issue," he said. "James Bond never had a six pack. He had a hairy chest. Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire had an incredible body but he was by no means ripped to within an inch of his life. There's a filter on society that this is normal but actually it's anything but normal."
Cue the world's tiniest violin.