Kat Dennings has opened up about the revolting things she has been told by directors since starting her career as a child.
The 2 Broke Girls star began acting as a child, with her first major role coming in 2000 as she played an obnoxious 13-year-old in Sex And The City, who’d hired Samantha to handle the publicity for her bat mitzvah.
Working in such a cutthroat industry at such a young age is never easy, and the now-38-year-old revealed that she faced cruel comments about her looks and weight.
She explained in a new interview with People: “The time that I was auditioning and starting to act, it was a very different environment than it is now.
“There was not a lot of inclusivity at all. It was very harsh. There was a lot of extremely negative feedback and people would not hold back.”
Kat revealed the worst things she’d heard as a young actor, adding: “It was pretty crazy thinking about it. I’m like, ‘How can anyone say that about a little kid? This is insane’.
“For example, I was 12. I’d go into an audition and I’d do it, and my manager would call me and I’d be like, ‘How’d it go?’
“And they’d be like, ‘Well, they thought you weren’t pretty enough and you’re fat’.”
Despite the “very cruel” attitude of some casting directors, Kat admitted that she had a “very strong” belief that their opinions were wrong.
“That was my attitude,” she revealed. “For some reason, it didn’t break my spirit. I was like, ‘I’ll show them.’
“I guess props to my parents, because they were like, ‘They’re idiots. Don’t listen to them.’ And I was like, ‘They’re idiots, I’m not’.”
While things were undeniably pretty rough back then, Kat believes the industry is “much softer [and] kinder” nowadays, particularly when it comes to young actors.
She explained: “There’s body positivity, there’s inclusivity, there’s representation, and there was none of that before. It was really gross.”
Kat went on to have roles as Max Black in 2 Broke Girls as well as playing Darcy Lewis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and will take a leading role as Riley in ABC’s Shifting Gears alongside Tim Allen, who plays her on-screen dad, Matt.
She shared her joy at working with the TV icon, adding: “He’s Santa Claus [in The Santa Clause films] and Buzz Lightyear [in Toy Story].
“He’s a big part of my consciousness growing up, so it was very surreal to work with him, but in a great way, because he’s a very kind person.”
