Claire Danes, known for years as the girl who played Juliet in Baz Luhrmann’s Shakespeare tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, found a new lease of life in Hollywood with Showtime’s television series, Homeland. While the show has its fair share of drawbacks and resorts to terribly offending clichés about terrorism and nations, it still works because of Danes’ incredible acting chops.
But the actress who breathed fiery life into the character of CIA agent Carrie Mathison took apart the issue of body shaming in Hollywood in a recent interview with Allure.
“It’s just so ingrained in us, the idea that we should take up the right amount of space, literally and figuratively,” Danes told Allure. “I’ve wrestled with this my whole life, as just a person in the world and as somebody who makes images. It’s OK to want to look and feel your best. It’s OK to work at being attractive, whatever that means to you. And it’s also OK to not expect to be defined by that. It’s OK to be powerful in every way: to be big, to take up space. To breathe and thrive.”
She also spoke about being singled out alongside Lena Dunham for her not having the same body type. “I was too skinny and she was too big,” Danes told People Magazine. “She is a dear friend of mine, and it made me angry because this is just how we are.”