Amber Tamblyn reveals being dejected when her agent asked her to lose weight after 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2'
In 2008 Amber Tamblyn was just 21 years-old when she finished the second installment of Sisterhood of the Travelling pants and even though her acting was being recognized by everyone, her agent encouraged her to lose weight. As reported by E!, in an interview with New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor on Tuesday (June 26), the actress opened up about the pressure that is put on young actress and her thoughts on Me Too movement.
Amber recalled that her agent at Warner Bros. had called her to congratulate on the success of the movie and to push her to lose some weight. “I think at that point I was 128 pounds and I’m 5’7″. I remember my agent saying to me — and she was a woman — ‘You have a real choice here. You can either be Nicole Kidman or you can be a character actress,’ ” she said.
The actress confessed that hearing those words did her no good as her self-esteem was affected by that one statement. “At that time, I was like 21 years old, so if you look at that and use that as an example and imagine that for over two decades, forms of that from when you’re a child to all the way up, it does something to you," she said. This is not the first time that Amber has opened up about an experience such as this.
In an op-ed she wrote for The New York Times in the month of January, Amber recalled that she faced a similar situation when she was cast by a Japanese director. While Amber was thrilled and excited to be on board for the movie, she was told by the director to shed 5lbs before the shooting for the movie commenced. “He said the film studio would provide a trainer and a meal plan for me,” she wrote.
She added, "It took me years to find the humor in being asked to lose such a relatively minimal number of pounds through an interpreter. I was 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed just 120 lbs. I remember this number precisely because of 5 lbs. lighter would make me 115 lbs., which is the number I ended up achieving after I spent two weeks eating only the deli meat off Subway sandwiches and skipping dinners altogether.”
In her op-ed, in which Amber explained the reason behind why women attending the Golden Globes award chose to wear black, she brought to the attention to how women were usually scrutinized for the way they looked. “Women have always had to carry the burden of molding the shapes and sizes of our bodies to the trends and tastes of others, at any cost,” she said. “We are assigned a look. We don’t get to choose.”