ONTD

9:49 pm - 11/20/2012

Amber Riley breaks down in tears as she opens up about body image.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Glee star Amber Riley, who plays the confident Mercedes on the Fox hit, broke down in tears as she admitted her struggles with her body image as a Hollywood actress.

In an honest and moving interview for the MTV series This Is How I Made It, the actress, who is currently making her Broadway debut in Cotton Club Parade revealed how the pressure to be thin has taken its toll.

The 26-year-old, size 16, actress said: 'Hollywood is a very hard place to be in. It really is. Being the person I am, you know, the size I am, being a woman, being a black woman, there's not a lot of roles for us.

'After I did St Sass, I kept on auditioning. I was being offered the girl who sits in the corner and eats all day, the girl who committed suicide because she was fat,' she continued.



'I never wanted to play a character that hated herself. I wanted people to know that those aren't the only roles for people like me, normal girls.'
It took 14 years of battling with her body image for Miss Riley to finally get her dream yes.



'Going to the auditions and having the casting director say you need to loose a little weight, I didn't understand why people couldn't accept me for who I was. And the rejection started wearing on my self-esteem,' she said.

'I'm not going to conform, and hurt myself, and do something crazy to be a size 2,' she explained.

'My parents always instilled knowing that your beautiful, that your fearfully and wonderfully made, and that you know who you are.'
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Even so, the slightly-unsure-of-herself five-foot-two-inch star went through multiple weight fluctuations while growing up in La Mirada, California.

Ultimately, however, she said: 'I'm a healthy person. have great friends around me that are positive.

'That's the key to life, is make your own path, set your own rules. There is no set rule, no set look, no set anything, you make your own rules in life, and your own decisions.'

MTV’s series This Is How I Made It, airs on Saturdays at 12pm.





source, 2, 3
thishollywood 20th-Nov-2012 09:55 pm (UTC)
if she left glee & became a cast member on snl (b/c kenan thompson is allegedly leavin) wuld that be a step up or down for her?

do u think shes gonna get more rolls after glee?
whiskybars 20th-Nov-2012 09:56 pm (UTC)
up, no doubt
forevergold217 20th-Nov-2012 09:58 pm (UTC)
up for sure. It'll give her more credibility.
treebraids 20th-Nov-2012 09:58 pm (UTC)
I'm not sure about the first part.

I think she will probably stick to singing and broadway after glee.
morgan90 20th-Nov-2012 10:00 pm (UTC)
Step up. LBR only like 3 of the Glee cast members are going to have careers once the show is over.
starchain 20th-Nov-2012 10:05 pm (UTC)
which is a shame since a bunch of them already had pretty strong theatre careers.
morgan90 20th-Nov-2012 10:09 pm (UTC)
The ones who were big on Broadway will probably just go back to doing that, and Jane Lynch is a legend so she'll be fine. Everyone else (possibly Naya Rivera excepted) will fall off the face of the Earth, or be relegated to Lifetime movie/TV Land sitcom status.
hershelwalker 20th-Nov-2012 10:26 pm (UTC)
i c what u did
thishollywood 20th-Nov-2012 10:32 pm (UTC)
& i wuld half gotten away w/ it 2, if it hadnt been 4 u metaling kids

dracopet 20th-Nov-2012 10:29 pm (UTC)
rolls after glee
rolls after glee
rolls after glee
rolls after glee
valyazhnaya 21st-Nov-2012 01:42 am (UTC)
I'm hungry now. I want to feed my rolls with rolls. FEEEED MEEEEEEE.
skillfully 20th-Nov-2012 10:38 pm (UTC)
what does keenan thompson have to do with anything? they need a new overweight black person on snl because he's gone?? ew @ you
thishollywood 20th-Nov-2012 10:42 pm (UTC)
b/c kenan was the person who fufilled all of their "black woman" roles & we were speculatin in the announcement post where they said he might be leaving that MAYBE they would actually replace him with a black actress this time around & amber riley is a young black actress who is known for her work on a comedy show


rly not that hard to comprehend
soapboxrhetoric 22nd-Nov-2012 05:20 pm (UTC)
raven-symone tbh
oh7 20th-Nov-2012 11:32 pm (UTC)
I wanna say down because she most likely would only play sassy Black characters anyway.
This page was loaded May 25th 2013, 9:04 pm GMT.