1.
As Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie was famously sexualized and put in tiny sequin shorts (that have been extra like underwear) and a ripped white shirt (that later will get moist).
The outfit was a fairly large departure from the comics, which normally characteristic Harley in a bodysuit — an outfit she donned (although it later modified) within the HBO animated Harley Quinn sequence.
Robbie later spoke of the costume and the backlash surrounding it: “As Margot, no, I don’t like carrying that. I’m consuming burgers at lunchtime, and then you definitely go do a scene the place you’re hosed down and soaking moist in a white T-shirt, it’s so clingy and also you’re self-conscious about it.”
Robbie’s costumes in Birds of Prey have been notably much less sexualized (together with, sure, overalls), and The Suicide Squad featured costumes and hair a lot nearer to that of her comedian counterpart.
2.
Probably the most well-known sexualized film costumes of all time was worn by Carrie Fisher in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Again. Within the scene, her character, Princess Leia, was enslaved by Jabba the Hutt and made to put on a metallic bikini and skirt.
Fisher mentioned the costume “wasn’t [her] selection” and that when George Lucas confirmed it to her, she thought he was joking. “It made me very nervous. I needed to sit very straight as a result of I couldn’t have strains on my sides, like little creases. No creases have been allowed, so I needed to sit very, very inflexible straight.” She was instructed to train so as to put on the costume, and later referred to as it, “what supermodels will ultimately put on within the seventh ring of hell.”
She additionally later gave recommendation to the newer trilogy’s star, Daisy Ridley, saying Ridley mustn’t “accept merely being a intercourse image. You need to battle in your outfit. Don’t be a slave like I used to be.”
3.
For Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Angelina Jolie was reportedly sad together with her character’s revealing and tight wardrobe, and thought it despatched a nasty message to younger women. She additionally needed to pad her bra for the position.
4.
When Scarlett Johansson first started taking part in Black Widow in Iron Man 2, her costume was rather more revealing and sexualized than it could turn out to be in later movies. Johansson herself referred to as her character’s portrayal “hypersexualized,” saying, “You have a look at Iron Man 2 and whereas it was actually enjoyable and had loads of nice moments in it, the character is so sexualized, you realize? Actually talked about like she’s a chunk of one thing, like a possession or a factor or no matter — like a chunk of ass, actually.
“And [Tony Stark] even refers to her as one thing like that at one level … ‘I need some’ [says Tony] … and at one level calls her a chunk of meat and possibly at the moment that truly felt like a praise.”
Johansson mentioned her character advanced over time as she did, and that “Now individuals, younger women, are getting a way more constructive message, however it’s been unimaginable to be part of that shift and be capable to come out the opposite aspect and be part of that previous story, but additionally progress.”
5.
However whereas Johansson’s costume grew to become much less sexualized, Elizabeth Olsen was not as fortunate together with her character, Scarlet Witch. This was significantly evident in Avengers: Infinity Battle, when Olsen identified she was the one feminine Avenger to reveal cleavage.
Olsen mentioned she did not thoughts carrying a corset, however most well-liked that it hadn’t been so low-cut. “I might prefer it to be increased. Everybody has these items that cowl them—Tessa Thompson does, Scarlett does. I wish to cowl up a bit. It is humorous as a result of generally I go searching and I am identical to—wow, I am the one one who has cleavage, and that is a continuing joke as a result of they have not actually advanced my superhero costume that a lot.”
Notably, her costume was rather more coated up in WandaVision and Dr. Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity.
6.
One other superhero who was not thrilled together with her costume was Malin Åkerman in Watchmen. Evaluating the tight latex swimsuit to placing a condom over her entire physique, she referred to as the Silk Spectre costume “so uncomfortable.” She additionally revealed it was cinched in with a corset, and that “They needed to cinch my waist in three inches smaller than what it really is each day in order that my shoulders regarded broader.”
But it surely wasn’t simply that the costume was bodily uncomfortable. “It did not really feel as highly effective,” she mentioned. “I believe that the cool factor for me taking part in Silk Spectre was her being this highly effective vigilante lady, apart from the costume. I really suppose the costume form of took away just a little bit from it. I needed to have fight boots and get tough and tumble.”
7.
At age 12, Miley Cyrus was forged as Miley Stewart, a personality who continuously took on her popstar persona of Hannah Montana. Whereas Miley dressed very like an everyday preteen, Hannah was outfitted with sequins and an extended blonde wig.
Cyrus later spoke of the psychological results of taking part in a personality that was so made-up at a younger age. “From the time I used to be 11, it was, ‘You are a pop star! Which means you must be blonde, and you must have lengthy hair, and you must placed on some glittery tight factor.’ In the meantime, I am this fragile little woman taking part in a 16-year-old in a wig and a ton of make-up. It was like Toddlers & Tiaras. I had fucking flippers.”
“I used to be informed for therefore lengthy what a woman is meant to be from being on that present,” Cyrus continued. “I used to be made to seem like somebody that I wasn’t, which most likely precipitated some physique dysmorphia as a result of I had been made fairly each day for therefore lengthy, after which after I wasn’t on that present, it was like, Who the fuck am I?”
8.
Within the wake of Jennette McCurdy’s bombshell memoir, I am Glad My Mother Died, Victorious actor Daniella Monet mentioned that she was pressured to put on outfits she was uncomfortable with.
“I would not even put on a few of that in the present day as an grownup,” Monet mentioned, and a costumer on the present identified that teenage forged members usually did not convey up their outfit considerations on account of a worry of retaliation.
9.
McCurdy herself was pressured to placed on a bikini and take pictures in it for Nickelodeon regardless of begging to simply put on a one-piece for an iCarly scene — she did find yourself in a one-piece within the episode, however pictures have been taken of her in a bikini to point out an govt (probably Dan Schneider).
10.
Jessica Alba hated carrying her well-known blue bikini in Into the Blue. After she referred to as it “not enjoyable” in a Individuals interview (which began with particularly praising Alba’s bikini-clad physique, moderately than talking concerning the film), the interviewer requested, “Was there one physique half that you simply thought, “Please, can I not present it?”
“All of it,” Alba answered. “Each time the digicam shut off, I used to be overlaying up in a towel and hating my life and calling my mother, and being like, ‘I can’t do that! I hate this film!’”
In truth, Alba’s character was initially meant to be a marine-biology scholar who would put on a wetsuit. “However then the individuals in cost determined to dumb it down,” she mentioned, and by the point Alba obtained on location to movie, they’d already filmed underwater scenes together with her physique double in a bikini. “I needed to match what they’d already shot,“ she says. “If I’d bitched concerning the change, I might’ve been referred to as a diva.”
11.
Milla Jovovich referred to as her “skimpy” costume firstly of The Fifth Factor “a bit embarrassing.” Whereas she had grown up as a mannequin and was used to being dressed by others, she mentioned that “Within the vogue world, many of the guys are homosexual and so they have the etiquette to not discover. However these English guys engaged on the set have been whistling and stuff.”
Nevertheless, she in the end mentioned, “My character’s all about what’s inside… It is probably not about her garments.”
12.
Charmed star, Alyssa Milano, did not identify a selected outfit however mentioned that she felt that her character’s costumes have been overly revealing on the present.
Within the ’90s, she mentioned, it was prefer it was essential to sexualize the characters so as to promote the present.
13.
Kaley Cuoco disliked lots of her Charmed costumes, together with her wig and black vinyl outfit in early Season 8 and her superhero costume within the episode “Battle of the Hexes.”
14.
Sophia Bush hated how usually her character’s costume was merely her in underwear on One Tree Hill, and needed to request that it occur much less.
Her boss replied, “He actually mentioned to me, he goes, ‘Properly, you’re the one with the massive f—king rack all people desires to see. And I used to be like, [gasp], ‘What? Properly, I’m not doing it!’” For the subsequent episode, she confirmed up in a turtleneck “to be spiteful,” saying, “That is simply how I’m gonna gown on the present any further when you don’t cease writing these scenes.”
15.
And at last, Marina Sirtis hated her cleavage-bearing Star Trek outfit, saying she had no say over it and was the truth is informed to shed pounds to suit into it. “I used to be simply the garments horse, and so they put stuff on me,” she mentioned. She additionally recommended her character was simply there “for the boys to take a look at.”
Sirtis was initially “imagined to be the brains of the Enterprise,” however when the choice was made to place her in a skimpy outfit, she mentioned she “grew to become ornamental, like a potted palm on the bridge.” When her uniform modified and hid her cleavage, Sirtis mentioned her character grew to become extra succesful: “Consequently, I obtained all my brains again, as a result of when you will have a cleavage you may’t have brains in Hollywood.”
Here is hoping that sooner or later, actors have just a little extra say in what they should placed on their our bodies — particularly when these issues are inappropriate or revealing, and ESPECIALLY in the event that they’re underage.
