Elisha Cuthbert Remembers Being 'Pressured' To Pose For Men's Magazines: 'No Option Back Then'
Elisha Cuthbert has recalled being "pressured" to pose for men's magazines during her 20s in the early 2000s.
"There was really no option back then," she said during her guesting on the "Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson" podcast Monday. "That's what the [film] studio wanted you to do."
The Canadian actress, who started her career in children's TV shows, played an ex-porn star in the 2004 movie "The Girl Next Door." Since then, she has made a mark as a sex symbol and was even named by Maxim magazine as TV's Most Beautiful Woman in 2013.
However, the "24" alum said titles as such do not really define her as a person or an actress.
"It's not like I won an Olympic medal. It was just some list some random magazine decided to create," she explained. "When someone reads my bio, those things come up. They actually don't mean anything in regards to me as a person or my career."
It wasn't the first time Cuthbert talked about being obliged to do magazine covers. In another interview in April, the actress shared how film executives urged her to pose for publications to generate interest in "The Girl Next Door."
"I remember when we were doing 'The Girl Next Door,' especially because of the content of the film where I was playing a porn star, those magazines felt even more relevant to be associated with to advertise this film. Yeah, it was definitely a push from the studios saying, 'These are great covers to get. They have millions of subscribers and a wide reach. Go do them,'" she said at the time.
The "Are You Afraid of the Dark" star also shared during her interview on the podcast that several celebrities were doing it back then, including A-list actresses.
"We kinda ended up in a space at the time where that was really happening. I mean, Halle Berry was doing it... Jennifer Aniston was doing it," she said. "We were probably too young to be subjected to that, and feeling pressured to do that."
Looking back, the actress realized she was subjected to unrealistic expectations that came with a tremendous amount of pressure.
"I definitely got caught up in that wanting to live up to what everyone was expecting of us, which is [to be] the 'hottest woman in the world.' It's like what? I'm an actress. I'm not Gisele [Bündchen], what in the world? I'm 5'2" with little legs and height. It was kind of ridiculous," she added.
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