Elizabeth Debicki: Difficult resisting society pressure to look a certain way

Hollywood actress 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.

Dec 4, 2020, 9:32 am ISTWorldIANS

"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 actress 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 actress 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.

She feels fitness is a great example.

"In a funny way, fitness is such a good example of how to do that because it can be such a seemingly simple but also quite complex shift in your brain to think like, 'how do I do this? So that it works for me?' and 'not that it's depleting me'. It's a really important shift," added the actress.

Debicki entered showbiz in 2011 with a small role in "A Few Best Men".

From her role as the evil Ayesha in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", brief appearance as a friend of the female protagonist in "The Great Gatsby", riding instructor Mrs. G in powerful sexual abuse drama "The Tale" to the light-hearted movie "Peter Rabbit", Debicki has taken up diverse roles in a bid to prove her mettle as an actor.

Now, she will be seen in a powerful role in Christopher Nolan's much-awaited film "Tenet".

Dubbed as "an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage", Nolan's new film takes one on a thrilling time-bending mission with two secret agents, essayed by Robert Pattinson and John David Washington.

The Warner Bros. Pictures also stars Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Clemence Poesy. The film is scheduled to release in India on December 4. It will be available to the Indian audience in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages.

(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)