Rafe Spall has revealed his struggles with weight in the acting industry.
Rafe Spall
The 38-year-old actor admitted that on a recent “big-profile” TV job, he was urged to get a personal trainer after production staff expressed concern about his weight.
Speaking on the Guardian podcast 'Comfort Eating with Grace Dent', Rafe said: "Now, I was fit at this time. I could run 5km in 20 minutes, and I was strong and fit. And it broke my heart. It was literally my worst nightmare coming true.”
And Rafe opened up about being told to lose weight for the 2013 movie 'I Give It A Year'.
He said: "It was made clear to me that I needed to lose weight in order to do the film,” he said. “And so, a trainer was laid on. I trained twice a day for 13 weeks to look like a ‘normal guy’.”
“The fact is that in that film, which I’m really proud of – I love that film, – I had to do all of that just to look like a ‘normal person’. It wasn’t like I was playing a superhero or whatever – I was playing a normal guy."
Rafe addressed the pressure on men and women in the acting industry, to look a certain way on screen.
He said: "There is much in the public discourse about the terrible pressure that women are put under in the entertainment industry to live up to an unrealistic body shape. The same is for me. It isn’t just me, it’s all men. And I don’t know who it’s for, on both sides, and I’m sick of it.
“It’s worth saying that when you see films with men with their shirts off, my entire life and existence for four months was based around the way that I looked and I starved myself to look like that essentially.
“I have to flog myself to [lose weight]. And I think it’s harmful. It’s harmful for me, the audience, for everyone.”
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