Emma is sick of having to look good

Emma is sick of having to look good

Emma Thompson has revealed the enormous pressure she is under to remain stick thin and look impossibly youthful to survive in Hollywood.

Asked how she liked doing big American studio films as she promoted her latest, Stranger Than Fiction, the 47-year-old actress replied: “It’s such a burden having to look good. Especially on screen because what if you have a bad night’s sleep? I think I could do it in France because in France women are allowed to have really big bags under their eyes like mine and they're allowed to be older and still be female and beautiful and sexy and everything.

“But in America everybody wants you to be twelve and size zero and it's like, no, I don't like it.” The double Oscar-winning actress, who has a daughter Gaia, seven, with her second husband Greg Wise, continued: “In some of the shots you can see my chin all folded up and I thought 'ooh perhaps a little plastic surgery' but what I want to see on screen is real faces doing real things”.


Winslet feels the same

Her sentiments were echoed by fellow British actress Kate Winslet. Miss Winslet, 31, speaking at the Toronto Film Festival at the weekend, said: “When you're acting, you have to be able to move your face.” “You have to be able to communicate your emotions through your expressions, and I would hate to have that taken away. I've no intention of getting carved up or injected, thank you very much.”