Jessie Cave Recalled A "Horrible" Incident Where A Costume Director Grabbed Her Stomach After Opening Up About Weight Gain Insecurity During The "Harry Potter" Films

"You're treated like a different type of thing; you're not somebody with feelings."

By
Ellie Bate
by Ellie Bate

BuzzFeed Staff

Actor Jessie Cave is opening up further about how acting has affected her body image after admitting she was treated like a "different species" due to her weight gain before filming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

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The 34-year-old was cast as Lavender Brown in the sixth Harry Potter film when she was just 20. In an interview with the Guardian published this week, Jessie said she felt she "was not a right fit for the industry at that time."

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"Lavender Brown is conventionally pretty, no glasses, small," Jessie said. "By the time I went back to do the last film, I had gained a bit of weight and I wasn't that person anymore."

Last month, in an interview with the Independent, Jessie said her weight gain between the sixth and final films was simply a result of growing up — but when she returned, she was treated "like a different species."

"It was horrible," she recalled. "It was probably more me and my insecurity, knowing that I wasn’t fitting into the same size jeans, but it wasn’t a time where actresses were any bigger than a size eight. … I definitely felt invisible when I gained a little bit of weight. And since then, it's made me have weird issues with weight and work. It's so fucked up, but it's just how it is. Women have to deal with that all the time."

She went on to tell the Guardian that, after some unspecified bad experiences, she now goes to costume fittings "terrified" and "prepared to be told something unkind."

"[It] was just horrible," Jessie recalled of an occasion where a costume director grabbed her stomach. "And I laughed. You're like: 'Oh, you're hurting me. Actually, it's fine.'"

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"Now I go into the costume fitting for any job and I'm terrified," Jessie said. "I'm prepared to be told something unkind.

"You're treated like a different type of thing; you're not somebody with feelings who has thought about what pants they're going to wear that day because they're going to be seen. Now when [costumers are] nice to me, and they are sensitive to how I may be feeling about my body, or that I may be breastfeeding or whatever, I almost cry."

When asked if she's considered "giving into the pressure" to lose weight in order to land roles, Jessie said: "I've definitely considered losing weight — and when I have lost weight, I tend to get a part."

"I mean, it's not rocket science," she said. "But I eat healthily, I'm a normal-sized woman, and I'm still regarded, probably, as a fat actress.

"I've just kind of stayed on the quirky path," she added. "And that's fine."

Read Jessie Cave's full interview with the Guardian here.

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