Amber Tamblyn Says Her Agent Told Her To Lose Weight After Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 2

Even though she fit into those famous traveling pants, agents told Amber Tamblyn she needed to slim down even more if she wanted to be a huge star.
The 35-year-old was recently discussing her debut novel Any Man with New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor when the conversation shifted to the Time’s Up initiative and the pressure on women in Hollywood.
As she spoke on the ways she’d been changed by finding success in the industry at such a young age, Tamblyn recalled one conversation in particular she says exemplifies the damaging casting culture.
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Right after the successful Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, the actress’ agent told her a Warner Bros. executive called to say that she was going to be the next big thing… as long as she lost some weight.
She remembered:

“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.’ And 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.”

We can only imagine.
Sadly, that was only one of many examples of the violating experiences Tamblyn encountered over the years. She added:

“They were always different forms of being shut out of conversations or being boxed out of different places in which I know my voice should exist or being told under certain circumstances I had to look a certain way or I was going to fail.”

So frustrating.
Now, Amber’s using her voice to change the culture for the better — and she doesn’t have to look like Kidman to do so.
[Image via Derrick Salters/WENN.]