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Heather Matarazzo did an interview with MTV and discussed fighting sexism in Hollywood, how being told she was "unfuckable" crushed her self-esteem, and more.
From her blog: "When I was 19 or so, I was standing in a Starbucks in West Hollywood with a director, talking about the upcoming film we were about to shoot...Waiting for our coffee, I could see that he seemed a bit uneasy. I asked him if everything was ok. He said yes. I didn't believe him, so I asked him again. He looked at me and said 'Heather, I'm sorry, we have to give your role to another actor. The producers don’t want you.' I didn’t understand. I had been attached to this project for two years, and now two weeks before filming, I'm being let go. I asked him why. He looked me dead in the eyes and said 'They say you're not fuckable.' Well, fuck me. Even as I write this, I can still feel the pain, shame, and humiliation that came over me in that moment."
MTV asked her if anything has changed for her in the years since that happened, and Matarazzo replied: "Truth be told that was one specific incident, and the response that I got was nothing but positive. But the bigger point that I was making in that blog was the perception that I have about myself, and how easy it is to advocate one's own power based off what other people say. You're saying I'm not fuckable; then that must be true.
Getting to the other side of that and saying 'oh, that’s a lie, that's actually not true'… that's when my perception changed about myself. Everything else changed; the roles that I started going out for changed, the description of the characters changed. It doesn't negate the fact that, of course, there are people that are sexist, that are shallow, that are only looking at the outside in terms of what woman can bring to a screen. But that's always been the case. For me, [it's about] personally not believing the hype and the lie, and then getting to see actual change in the opportunities that I've been given once I stopped believing that lie that I wasn't fuckable."
You can read her thoughts on working with female directors, wanting more opportunities for women in Hollywood, (false)
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source.
