The Hunger Games star Sam Claflin is opening about his struggles with body dysmorphia.
“I’m incredibly insecure,” Claflin, 39, who played Finnick Odair in the hit franchise, said during a Monday, February 2, appearance on Fearne Cotton’s “Happy Place” podcast.
He continued, “I just went to a screening of a film I was in, and everyone immediately afterwards, the director, producers, [said] ‘How was it?’ I was like, ‘I hated it.’ It’s my face I don’t like. I don’t like me.”
The Daisy Jones & The Six actor admitted, “I have a form of body dysmorphia, I think,” which he said is rooted in his upbringing.
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“I think that may have stemmed from being a teenager and hitting puberty late, and not feeling like I was good-looking, or too short, or not strong enough,” Claflin explained. “I remember a P.E. class specifically where I couldn’t do a pull-up when everyone else in my year was doing pull-ups, and I just felt incredibly embarrassed.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, “body dysmorphic disorder is a mental health condition in which you can’t stop thinking about one or more perceived defects or flaws in your appearance — a flaw that appears minor or can’t be seen by others.” Those with the condition may “intensely focus on [their] appearance and body image, repeatedly checking the mirror, grooming or seeking reassurance, sometimes for many hours each day.” The disorder can “cause you significant distress and impact your ability to function in your daily life,” per the academic medical center.
Claflin said his body insecurities are further impacted by his career as an actor.
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“Being in the industry that I’m in, and being especially now the entire world has the opportunity to have their opinion, I think, yeah, it really affects you,” he said.
“A lot of the roles I played earlier on in my career … I had a topless scene in one of my first movies, but wasn’t told, it wasn’t in the script,” he shared. “I got told, like, a week before they were going to take my top off, and I’m like, ‘S***, I haven’t been working out. What am I going to do? This is like my first introduction to the world.’”
He added, “I think it’s I’ve been massively affected by it, and I’d say most guys are that I’ve spoken to, anyway, in some degree. But mine got quite bad.”
The British actor said that, among other things, “I really overthink everything, so I will skip meals … I don’t eat breakfast, I have a juice in the morning and I work out doubly hard if I’ve had a bad meal the night before.”
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“It’s a real struggle, it’s like an everyday struggle,” he shared, adding that he also struggles with people-pleasing.
“It bothers me that people might not like me, or might not think I’m a nice person or whatever it is, or [I] might not look good,” he said. “I’m sort of in the process of working through that and being aware of it, trying to embrace it, but it’s a challenge.”
Despite his personal challenges, Claflin said, “I’m not miserable, by any means. I’m very happy,” noting that he particularly enjoys being a father.
“I embrace that role with all of me. I was born to be a nurturer. … Having kids has given me my life’s purpose, I feel,” said Claflin, who shares son Pip, 10, and daughter Margot, 8, with his ex-wife, actress Laura Haddock.
