In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Lili Reinhart opened up about why she agreed to strip down for Riverdale.
Lili says she really felt insecure about her body and despite that, she agreed to do a scene in her bra and underwear. But she says she did it to promote body positivity.
“I don’t have the CW girl body — tiny waist, nice-shaped legs, skinny, small, tiny,” she says. The actress continues, “I had to do a bra and underwear scene in this last season and I felt really insecure about it. I really, really didn’t want to do it. I didn’t tell anyone this”. Lili clarified that she wasn’t pressured into doing it and explains that she did it because it was her job.
Lili continues that she felt bad about doing that and that is where it got complicated. She said that she cannot preach body positivity if she did not practice it herself. The actress adds that it was important for her to do the scene even if she did not feel amazing about her body. She explains she did it so that people could see her body as it is.
Lili adds, “I did it for the people who feel like they need to look a certain way.” The actress hopes that her choice to do that could be a way for unrealistic body expectations, that are flooded on social media, to cease.
Lili explains that whenever she opens Instagram she feels like people have such beautifully toned bodies’. However, when she hits the beach she thinks nobody has that body and nobody looks like that. The actress adds, “Instagram and Victoria’s Secret runways are not a portrayal of how people look in real life.”
Lili Opens Up About Her Struggle With Mental Health
Other than talking and promoting body positivity, she also is open about her struggle with mental health. She said it has been incredibly hard to stay positive during the quarantine.
The actress said she also wanted to post sad songs on her Instagram like everybody else but chose not to. Lili explained, “But I hold myself back, because I know I have millions of people watching me who want to dig through every little thing I post and try to figure out the meaning behind it.”
The Riverdale alum said she is obviously dealing with a lot of depression. “So how do I find a light at the end of the tunnel? I really wanted to go out of my way to find the root of it. Now, when I feel something come up, I let it come out,” Reinhart adds.
She said otherwise it is really harming her body and brain. The actress said allowing your body to feel what it feels is the way to heal. In Lili’s new movie, Chemical Hearts, she plays a high school student struggling with surviving a car accident that killed her boyfriend. It was a role which, Lili says, allowed her to use “a lot of my own inner turmoil.
She said she does not describe herself as a bubbly or joyful. Lili joked that she making herself out to be a Grinch here. However, she says she has lived with depression for a long time because of which playing a girl who is feeling somber and going through heartache and grief wasn’t so foreign to her.
“I was speaking very fondly of someone I was in love with.”
“It wasn’t that hard for me to access,” the actress explained. She is also hoping that her recent movie will allow people to see her “as a film actress.” Lili wants people to know that she is in this career for the long haul. The actress says she is not going to be on Riverdale for five years and disappear.
Other than acting, Lili also has another passion project which is her poetry. Some of her poems will be featured in her debut poetry book, Swimming Lessons. The book will be available to us by September 29.
However, she seemingly hinted that some of her poetry will be based on what she felt for Cole Sprouse, her ex-boyfriend. “Some of them are obvious for a reason because I’m not badmouthing someone. I was speaking very fondly of someone I was in love with. I don’t feel any shame from it,” Reinhart says.
She says people will read between the lines and make their own conclusions. The actress adds that she will not be encouraging it but however, a lot of that has come from emotion rather than what was happening in the actual event.
Lili and Cole split up back in March after dating for three years. Sometime after that, the actress came forward to proudly say that she was a bisexual woman. She has revealed that she knew that since she was a teenager.
“I thought: ‘Do I like girls? I don’t know.’ As I’ve gotten older, the answer has become ‘Yes. Clearly, I do,'” Reinhart says. “… I think I just felt at this point in time: Why not? If suddenly I started dating a girl publicly, I didn’t want people to be, like, what the …? Not that I would even owe anyone an explanation. Because I don’t.”
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