Emma Thompson has revealed that she nearly walked out of the 2008 screen adaptation of Brideshead Revisted, after she learned that producers were asking her female co-star to lose weight.
Speaking on the Swedish chat show Skavlan last week, the Oscar-winning actress described the pressure put upon women in Hollywood as 'evil,' and maintained that anorexia is a widespread problem in the film industry.
'There was a wonderful actress in a film I did called Brideshead Revisited,' she explained. 'The producer said to her, “Will you lose some weight?” And she was absolutely exquisite.'
'I said to them, “If you speak to her about this again, on any level, I will leave this picture. You are never to do that."'
Her co-star Hayley Atwell actually confirmed this story about her experience on Brideshead around the time of the film's release, revealing how she 'went round to Emma's one night and she was getting very angry that I wasn't eating all the food she was giving me. I told her why and she hit the roof.'
Thompson's other co-stars on the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's much-loved novel included Felicity Jones, Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw.
'It’s evil what’s happening and what’s going on there [in Hollywood], and it’s getting worse,' Thompson added.
'There’s so many kids, girls and boys now, and actresses who are very, very thin into their 30s, who simply don’t eat,' she continued.
'Sometimes there are just some subjects that you absolutely have to make noise about because it’s so tedious and it’s gone on and on.'
The actress went on to reveal that she could never move to LA because she'd feel 'too fat' and 'too old.'
'I never moved to the US. I couldn’t. Can you imagine? Every time I go to LA I think “Oh god, I am too fat to go there,"' she said. 'I think they are saying to me when I arrive “You are fat and you are old. Go home.”’
'LA is so mad and so hostile. It is a very strange place and I could not live there.'
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