Love Actually actress Olivia Olson revealed that she feared she’d face a mental breakdown under the pressure of being a child star after her big break in the beloved Christmas movie.
The now 30-year-old confessed she developed crippling stage fright after Hollywood higher-ups criticised her weight and even questioned her ethnicity.
One casting director had told her that she needed to lose 10 pounds for a major film role.
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Speaking out about it for the first time, Olivia told The Sun: “I thank my parents for being such a support system, because it’s kind of a miracle I didn’t have a mental breakdown.”
(Image: Getty Images)
She continued: “The auditioning process is constant rejection and at that age, having casting directors saying literally to your face, when you are 12 years old, ‘Oh, we would like you if only you dropped 10lbs’. It’s like, ‘What?’”
Olivia revealed that she also experienced bullying at school, which, on top of the stress from Hollywood behind the scenes, convinced her to move to voice acting over on-screen roles.
(Image: GETTY)
“Any person who says that to a kid needs to re-evaluate, but it’s just how the world worked at the time, that’s what pushed me into doing voice-over acting because it didn’t matter what I looked like. I could let my talent speak for itself,” she confessed.
Olivia starred as Joanna Anderson in Love Actually in the 2003 Richard Curtis film.
She played the love interest of the young Sam (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and throughout the movie, Sam grapples with his new emotions and turns to his recently widowed dad (Liam Neeson) for advice.
(Image: Daily Record)
Olivia, as Joanna, performs a heartfelt rendition of Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, leaving viewers spellbound.
By the end of the movie, Sam plucks up the courage to run after Joanna who’s moments away from boarding her flight back to Canada.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
