Maisie Williams is concerned her looks will impact her career. She's not alone.
Don’t hate her because she’s not your definition of beautiful.
Maisie Williams is worried about how her looks will affect her career once Game of Thrones ends. “It’s only now I’m starting to realize the characters that are available to me because of the way I look and the characters that aren’t available to me,” she told the Irish Times.
She pointed out how shallow the entertainment industry is and what that means for her. “I don’t look like someone who is cast in roles that are, well, sexualized,” she added.
Williams is “completely in awe” of Hollywood’s “jaw-droppingly beautiful” leading ladies, but why can’t she be a leading lady? “I think it’s sad that you only get to see one type of beautiful on screen,” she said.
Not only do we agree, but we think Williams is even more jaw-droppingly beautiful than she already was for calling out Hollywood and putting the industry in its place.
She’s not alone in feeling like she’s in a beauty pageant rather than the career she chose. Other actresses have pointed out the problems with beauty biases in casting. Kate Winslet was somehow convinced she wasn’t stunning. “I was even told that I might be lucky in my acting if I was happy to settle for the fat-girl parts,” she said at the WE Day UK charity event in 2017. From a young age, she felt she “wasn’t good enough,” the Academy Award-winning actress pushed past it and proved Hollywood wrong, as Williams surely will too. “I fought back. I had to ignore the negative comments. I had to believe in myself. I had to choose to rise above it all, and I had to work hard.”
Winslet thought that she was the “most unlikely candidate” for the role of Rose in Titanic. “Kate from the sandwich shop in Reading — suddenly acting in one of the biggest movies ever made! You can be from anywhere and you can do anything, believe it.”
Goldie Hawn once said her image did negatively affect her career. “Some directors didn’t want to work with me because of my name, ‘Goldie’ — they didn’t want to necessarily attach themselves to an image,” she told USA Today. “Whatever is your gift can also be your downfall,” she insisted. “And you’ve got to be skillful as to how you navigate your choices and your life and all the things you’re doing around your career.”
Anna Kendrick has opened up about her appearance not being her “moneymaker.” But she doesn’t take Hollywood’s beauty standards seriously. “Beauty standards in Hollywood are unacceptable. I often lose parts because I’m ‘too ugly … on the inside,’” she once tweeted.
Beauty standards in Hollywood are unacceptable. I often lose parts because I'm "too ugly…on the inside."
— Anna Kendrick (@AnnaKendrick47) January 19, 2014
Even athletes struggle with this pressure to fit a mold. Serena Williams has admitted that it was a struggle to learn to love and accept her body, especially in tennis. “When I was younger, it was hard seeing all these thin athletes when I had more muscular curves and was big-busted,” she said. However, it turns out, her “different” build has benefited her, if anything.
Then there’s Charlize Theron, who insists her modelesque frame can hurt her career. “Jobs with real gravitas go to people that are physically right for them and that’s the end of the story,” Theron told British GQ. “How many roles are out there for the gorgeous f***ing gown-wearing eight-foot model? When meaty roles come through, I’ve been in the room and pretty people get turned away first.”
It seems Maisie Williams will be the type of beauty this industry has needed for a long time.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Natalie Portman on Hollywood Beauty Standards and the Quest for Perfection
Sophie Turner Has Already Asked Maisie Williams to Be a Bridesmaid
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