“I find the whole concept of being ‘sexy’ embarrassing and confusing. If I do a photo-shoot, people desperately want to change me - dye my hair blonder, pluck my eyebrows, give me a fringe. Then there’s the choice of clothes. I know everyone wants a picture of me in a mini-skirt. But that’s not me.”
As a younger woman, that pressure of looking perfect got me down, but I’ve made my peace with it. With airbrushing and digital manipulation, fashion can project an unobtainable image that’s dangerously unhealthy. I’m excited about the aging process. I’m more interested in women who aren’t perfect. They’re more compelling.
There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. It’s not the absence of fear, it’s overcoming it. Sometimes you’ve got to blast through and have faith.
For me, it’s the difference between being able to have a life and not. I’ll say, ‘I will sit here and answer every single Harry Potter fandom question you have but I just can’t do a picture’. I have met fans that have my face tattooed on their body. I’ve met people who used the Harry Potter books to get through cancer. I don’t know how to explain it, but the Harry Potter phenomenon steps into a different zone.
I feel like young girls are told, I don’t know, that they have to be this kind of princess and fragile. It’s bullshit. I identify much more with being a warrior, a fighter. If I was going to be a princess I’d be a warrior princess definitely
“I keep telling myself that I’m a human being, an imperfect human being who’s not made to look like a doll, and that who I am as a person is more important than whether at that moment I have a nice figure. Obviously I have insecurities and doubts. But I just have to do my best and be myself. And then hope that’s enough.”
I️ truly, truly believe that beauty is something that comes from within. You can only really look beautiful if you feel beautiful on the inside. It shows through your face, the way you move and the way you hold yourself.
becoming yourself is really hard and confusing, and it’s a process. i was completely the eager beaver in school, i was the girl in the front of the class who was the first person to put her hand up, and it’s often not cool to be the person that puts themself out there, and i’ve often gotten teased mercilessly, but i found that ultimately if you truly pour your heart into what you believe in even if it makes you vulnerable, amazing things can and will happen.
There have been hard moments in my career when I’ve had an agent or a movie producer say, ‘You are making a big mistake.’ But what’s the point of achieving great success if you feel like you’re losing your freakin’ mind? I’ve had to say, ‘Guys, I need to go back to school,’ or ‘I just need to go home and hang out with my cats.’ People have looked at me and been like, ‘Is she insane?’ But, actually, it’s the opposite of insane.
Beauty is not long hair, skinny legs, tanned skin or perfect teeth. Believe me. Beauty is the face of who cried and now smiles, beauty is the scar on your knee since you fell when you were a kid, beauty is the circles when love doesn’t let you sleep, beauty is the expression on the face when the alarm rings in the morning, it’s the melted makeup when you have a shower, it’s the laughter when you make a joke you’re the only one who can understand, beauty is meeting his gaze and stopping understanding, it’s when you cry for all you paranoias, beauty is the lines marked by time. Beauty is the marks the life leaves on us, all the kicks and the caresses the memories leave us. Beauty is letting yourself live.