Men Who Were Body Shamed By Hollywood

Women have been victims of body shaming seemingly since the dawn of history, and now the men of Hollywood are experiencing it too. Gone are the days of hiding those love handles beneath loose-fitting T-shirts. The paparazzi are watching, and so is the big, bad world of social media. No dad bod or beer belly is safe anymore. Here are some of the leading men of Hollywood who've been shamed for their physiques.

English actor Sam Claflin has spoken candidly about the body shaming he's been subjected to during auditions. "I remember doing one job when they literally made me pull my shirt up and were grabbing my fat and going 'you need to lose a bit of weight,'" he told The Sydney Morning Herald. "I felt like a piece of meat." 

He believes women have it worse in Hollywood, but said he still gets insecure and anxious before auditions. "I get really worked up to the point where I spend hours and hours in the gym and not eating for weeks to achieve what I think they're going for," he said.

The Hunger Games star addressed his body again in an Instagram post that depicted him with some serious abs. However, Claflin said that stomach wasn't actually his. In the photo's caption, he hilariously thanks the man who worked out tirelessly to get that body, as well as the editor who spent time putting Claflin's face on this other dude's bod. "And lastly, to everyone who actually believed (if even for a second) that this could be me. Wow. Bless you." He goes on to say that while he has worked out in the past, he's never taken it to the level necessary for washboard abs. Instead of spending time in the gym, he said he's using his spare time to enjoy being a dad.

Labeled "hunk to chunk" by the media, Wentworth Miller rose to fame with his sexy breakout role on Fox's Prison Break, but he made even bigger headlines when he revealed the damaging effects of body shaming on his mental health. 

The suffering reportedly started with a mean-spirited meme. The widely circulated joke compared a svelte image of Miller on the hit series next to a picture of Miller looking a little less slim and trim. The meme's caption read, a "When you break out of prison and find out about McDonald's monopoly..." Miller posted the meme on his Facebook page alongside an incredibly moving caption where he admitted that the first time he came across the photo, "it hurt to breathe."

According to his Facebook post, Miller has dealt with depression since he was a child, and when that unflattering photo was taken he was at the lowest point in his life and feeling suicidal. Miller said he'd been trying to lay low, but the paparazzi snapped that photo while he was hiking with a friend. The image spread like wildfire. 

"But as with everything in life, I get to assign meaning," he said. "And the meaning I assign to this/my image is Strength. Healing. Forgiveness. Of myself and others." Miller urged everyone to band together to battle depression and bullying.

Actor Jonah Hill rose to fame as a funny man who seemingly escaped the pressure to fit Hollywood's physical mold. However, he turned heads when he slimmed down in 2011 for his role in Moneyball, alongside Brad Pitt, and then became a target for body-shamers when he was photographed on the set of 2016's War Dogs looking a lot bulkier again. Headlines in the press had a field day with his filmography, labeling him the "Whale of Wall Street" and calling his appearance "super bad."

At the time of this writing, Hill appears to have lost weight again. During an interview on The Tonight Show, he credited his 21 Jump Street co-star Channing Tatum for advising him. Hill told Jimmy Fallon, "I wanted to get in better shape, so I called Channing Tatum and said, 'Hey, if I ate less and go to a trainer, will I get in better shape?' and he said 'Yes, you dumb motherf**ker, of course you will. It's the simplest thing in the entire world.'" 

Clearly, Hill is doing something different because his slimmer summer bod made headlines again in 2017, with CNN calling him "almost unrecognizable."

Leonardo DiCaprio is better known for his acting chops than his abs of steel, but nonetheless, he always seems to be in good shape for his films. However, in 2014, the paparazzi captured several rather unflattering photos of the Oscar-winner on vacation with his then-girlfriend, German model Toni Garrn. The press had a field day with the shots, calling him everything from "Leonardo DiFlabrio" to "The Great Fatsby."

What makes DiCaprio's body shaming stand apart from the others on this list is that his critics seemed to include an asterisk that suggested he should get a pass because of who he is. TMZ reported that he was "looking rounder than usual...but the fact is, Leo's so rich and awesome, it doesn't matter." Radio talk show host Joe "Monk" Pardavila also came to the actor's defense in a tweet, saying, "#LeonardoDiCaprio has put on a few pounds. He's worth $200 Million and bangs supermodels. I don't think he cares."

Before Chris Pratt became a blockbuster name, he was best known for his hilarious character Andy Dwyer on the TV series Parks and Recreation. According to an interview with Vanity Fair, Pratt gained some weight during the first season of the show partially because he felt it was more in tune with the character, but also because he was too busy enjoying his first year of marriage to actress Anna Faris to count calories. Unfortunately, his fuller figure wasn't in line with what those casting Moneyball had in mind for the role of professional baseball player Scott Hatteberg. "That was the first time I heard someone say, 'We're not gonna cast you—you're too fat,'" he told the magazine, so he shed some pounds and snagged the role.

After transforming into Hollywood's idea of what a hunk "should" look like, his new physique became a topic of conversation for many of his fans; some had a problem with the trimmer Pratt. The Passengers start called out his body critics on his Instagram page in March 2017. "So many people have said I look too thin...Some have gone as far as to say I look 'skeletal.' Well, just because I am a male doesn't mean I'm impervious to your whispers. Body shaming hurts..." The rest of his post and the insane "selfie" that accompanied it demonstrates just how simple it can be to shut the haters up.