The actor opened up about how the meme negatively impacted her life and turned her into a ‘recluse’.
Being in the public eye is no easy feat.
From the non-stop commentary on what you do and who you’re dating to unwarranted comments about what you’re wearing or how you look, dealing with these pressures can affect anyone – especially when you’ve been in the spotlight from a young age like Chloë Grace Moretz.
The actor, who has appeared in more than 50 films since making her debut in Kick-Ass, recently opened up about the challenges of growing up in the public eye and how her body dysmorphia was heightened by “horrific” memes on social media – in particular one that compared an edited paparazzi shot of her to a Family Guy character.
“I’ve actually never really talked about this, but there was one meme that really affected me, of me walking into a hotel with a pizza box in my hand,” she told Hunger magazine. “And this photo got manipulated into a character from Family Guy with the long legs and the short torso, and it was one of the most widespread memes at the time.”
“Everyone was making fun of my body, and I brought it up with someone and they were like, ‘Oh, shut the fuck up, it’s funny,’” Moretz continued.
“And I just remember sitting there and thinking, my body is being used as a joke and it’s something that I can’t change about who I am, and it is being posted all over Instagram. It was something so benign as walking into a hotel with leftovers. And to this day, when I see that meme, it’s something very hard for me to overcome.”
Moretz said the impact social media had on her view of her body made her feel more self-conscious when photographed in public.
“It took a layer of something that I used to enjoy, which was getting dressed up and going to a carpet and taking a photo, and made me super self-conscious.
“I think that body dysmorphia – which we all deal with in this world – is extrapolated by the issues of social media. It’s a headf**k.”
While the actor said that she felt “kind of sad” about the experience, she added that taking a step back from the spotlight has made her feel better.
“[I was able to] have so many experiences that people didn’t photograph, but at the same time, it made me severely anxious when I was photographed. My heart rate would rise and I would hyperventilate.”
While Moretz has appeared in a number of projects over the years, including Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and the LGBTQ+ drama The Miseducation of Cameron Post, she says she “basically became a recluse” in her own life.
That along with going to therapy and embarking on a slight career break allowed Moretz to process her own “self-loathing” and the “jarring shift in my consciousness” about the attention her body has received.
“To say that these past two years have been transformative is an understatement, to say the least,” Moretz said. “I’m a very different girl than I was. I feel like a woman now.”
Image: Getty
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