(NOTE LANGUAGE) While celebrity memes are often traded as harmless fun, actress Chloë Grace Moretz says one about her body was so “horrific” that she “basically became a recluse.”
In a frank conversation with Hunger, the star of Amazon’s upcoming The Peripheral explained, “… there was one meme that really affected me, of me walking into a hotel with a pizza box in my hand. And this photo got manipulated into a character from Family Guy … and it was one of the most widespread memes at the time.”
Moretz’s long legs, exposed in short-shorts, and her torso digitally shrunk, were being compared to an animated female character on the show that was revealed to be only a head atop a very long pair of legs.
“Everyone was making fun of my body and I brought it up with someone, and they were like, ‘Oh, shut the f*** up, it’s funny,'” the actress expressed.
“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 …”
Moretz continued, “I basically became a recluse. It was great because I got away from the photographers and I was able to be myself, and 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.”
She added it took therapy to allow her to face photographers again. “I think that body dysmorphia — which we all deal with in this world — is [exacerbated] by the issues of social media,” she said.
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