If a model who has spoken extensively about the abuses she’s experienced in her own profession is saying your industry is fucked up, your industry is probably fucked up. Of course, it’s not exactly a surprise that Hollywood has a seedy underbelly, but scores of stars have decided to put up with the worst in exchange for their shot at glory. Emily Ratajkowski, already famous in her own right, is an outlier for deciding the cons are simply not worth the pros.
In a new interview with The Los Angeles Times, Ratajkowski declares herself over uneven “power dynamics and the power that is held by boys clubs.” She had modest success as an actor—most notably a role in David Fincher’s Gone Girl—but became tired of making herself “digestible to powerful men in Hollywood” and fired her “acting agent, commercial rep and manager” in early 2020. (Her last audition was apparently for Triangle Of Sadness, losing the role to the late Charlbi Dean.)
“[I] didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’m an artist performing and this is my outlet.’ I felt like a piece of meat who people were judging, saying, ‘Does she have anything else other than her [breasts]?’” Ratajkowski tells the outlet. She “didn’t trust” the team handling her acting career, sharing, “I was like, ‘I can handle receiving phone calls. I’m gonna make these decisions. None of you have my best interest at heart. And you all hate women.’”
Ratajkowski has a pretty unique perspective on the entertainment industry, not only from her vantage as a supermodel (which she says at this point of her career feels “safer” because she’s mostly on sets with “queer and femme-presenting people,” per The LA Times). She also had a taste of child stardom, appearing in two episodes of iCarly—itself a now-notorious set thanks to the account of star Jennette McCurdy. Plus, Ratajkowski was married to Uncut Gems producer Sebastian Bear-McClard, who has recently been accused of sexual misconduct and preying on underage women. In other words, she’s had plenty of firsthand experience with Hollywood’s unsavory side.
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“And maybe that’s why right now I’m not really interested in men’s POVs,” she says. “Because they were lies. And I don’t mean infidelity. This is a fucked up world. Like, Hollywood is fucked up. And it’s dark.”
