Lili Reinhart Recalls Feeling "Really Insecure" Filming an Under-wear Scene on 'Riverdale'
Lili Reinhart is not afraid to discuss body image and grappling with unrealistic beauty standards. In a new interview with The Los Angeles Times, the star of CW's Riverdale opened up about a time she felt uncomfortable filming a skin-baring scene among her fellow cast mates.
“I don’t have the CW girl body — tiny waist, nice-shaped legs, skinny, small, tiny,” the 23-year-old actress told the Times. "I had to do a bra and under-wear scene in this last season and I felt really insecure about it. I really, really didn’t want to do it. I didn’t tell anyone this."
Though Reinhart clarified she wasn't forced to shoot the sequence ("I did it because it was my job," she said), she "felt bad" about herself for filming it. But the Hustlers and Chemical Hearts star realized she was caught in a "complicated" paradox: "I can’t preach body positivity if I don’t practice it."
She explained, "So even if I’m not feeling amazing about my body, I felt it was important for me to do the scene anyway in my bra and under-wear so people could see my body as it was. I did it for the people who feel like they need to look a certain way.”
Earlier this year, Reinhart also tweeted about feeling "very insecure" and "intimidated by the physique of my surrounding cast mates" while filming stripped-down scenes. "I’ve felt very insecure due to the expectation that people have for women on tv, what they should look like look like," she wrote at the time. "But I have come to terms with my body and that I’m not the kind of person you would see walking on a runway during fashion week. I have bigger b--bs, I have cellulite on my thighs/butt, and my stomach sticks out rather than curves in."
Reinhart received backlash from commenters who pointed out that she's "still white and thin," "hot and rich," and has a "[socially] accepted" body type. But she called them out for having "the audacity to tell me that my feelings aren’t valid."
How sad is it that I come forward about my insecurities and people have the audacity to tell me that my feelings aren’t valid. People like this, the ones who leave these ignorant comments, are the reason why people don’t speak out and end up struggling alone. Shame on you. pic.twitter.com/XgPrzOJXzO
— Lili Reinhart (@lilireinhart) February 7, 2020
She added, "People like this, the ones who leave these ignorant comments, are the reason why people don’t speak out and end up struggling alone. Shame on you."
