‘Difficult resisting society pressure to look a certain way’

Elizabeth Debicki will be next seen in a powerful role in upcoming film Tenet

Hollywood actor Elizabeth Debicki feels it is very difficult to resist societal pressure to look a certain way, and says she found it liberating when, as a woman she decided to get fit for herself, and not for people.

“One of the things that recently has been such a lovely and liberating thing for me as a woman is — I think it began with ‘Tenet’ — when I identified that I have to have a (certain) kind of stamina to make this film,” Debicki told IANS in an interview.

“Fitness for women and strength in the body can be such an interesting precarious line to tread. For us, it’s very difficult to resist the kind of pressure from society to kind of look a certain way and a lot of that seems to be projected to us (that it) can be achieved through fitness,” she added.

The actor explained: “It is a lovely, necessary but difficult place to get to, in your own kind of personal evaluation of yourself as a person, as a woman, (and) to kind of use fitness to give you strength rather than it be something about your appearance to the world.” Debicki continued: “It was such a liberating moment in my life as a woman when it turned into ‘let me get fit for me and not for people’. That took a long time.”

Looking back, she said: “Like a lot of my life, it’s been working out, like ‘I have the inclination to do something, but how do I do this so that it works for me’. I think that is something women really grapple with a lot.” The actor feels women are “very good at changing our experiences, giving a lot and exchanging a lot”.

“That can leave us really empty at times. I think we have to learn how to change the perspective with which you are coming at the same activity, whether it is fitness or making art. You have to figure out and it takes a long time…to figure out how to manipulate it so that you get just as much out of it,” she added.