Zoe Kravitz Talks Eating Disorder, Losing 90 Pounds For New Role

For the film The Road Within, actress Zoe Kravitz had to lose 90 pounds to play a woman with anorexia.

Yet in a recent interview with Nylon magazine, Kravtiz said getting into character was easy, as she struggled with an eating disorder in high school.

“That’s part of what actually attracted me to the role; I think it’s really important to talk about body image and the struggles a lot of women have with food – especially in the entertainment industry,” Kravitz said.

‘She just wants to control everything’

Kravitz’s character in the movie is Marie, who the actress described as someone who is “always on the defense.”

“She’s not in a place where she’s ready to get better, and she’s still not by the end of the film, which was an interesting way for us to play it. We didn’t wrap [Marie] up in a bow.”

While Kravitz said she tried to lose weight for the role in a healthy way, she stressed that it’s not a healthy thing to do.

“I put my body through so much and at first it was really hard to even have a conversation because I was so lightheaded all the time,” she said.

While Kravitz described Marie as a “strong young woman,” the character also “just wants to control everything,” she said, which is a common struggle known to those suffering from eating disorders.

“Food is a part of that for her. It’s amazing to play a really strong character that also has a weakness.”

Source: Nylon

By David Shankbone (Zoë Kravitz) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons