Former Home and Away star opens up over trolling and body shaming
Ex-Home and Away star Sophie Dillman has shared her feelings on body shaming, revealing that she used to be trolled over her appearance while working on the soap.
Writing in her Yahoo Lifestyle Australia column, the actress, who left her role as Ziggy Astoni in March this year after six years on the show, said that she was 'almost guaranteed' to be asked in interviews how she felt about wearing a bikini on screen.
"This question has a lot of layers and my answer constantly changed throughout my time in the Bay and is still changing today," she said, adding that "physically working in a bikini is simple" and no different to wearing any other costume.
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However, she explained that "the emotional aspects of being in a bikini on primetime television is the tough bit", revealing that, in her experience, she was one of the only cast members who was asked this question on a regular basis.
"This says to me that the public perception was that I shouldn't feel good being in a bikini or I should not be in a bikini at all," she said. "None of the straight sized actors/actresses have their confidence questioned or value put up for debate. What does that say?"
She went on to say that she "hated wearing a bikini" and found it "the scariest thing" about her job, saying that she was "dying inside" the first time that she had to wear a bikini on set.
"Our beautiful head of makeup advised me to never look for pap photos or read the articles that came with them. Of course, I ignored that advice," she continued. "I found those photos and cried for days."
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The actress, who is in a real-life relationship with her former Home and Away co-star Patrick O'Connor, said that the trolling, which included "articles written about my boobs being too big", and people "constantly" asking whether she was pregnant, was "awful and endless".
"The effect that those comments and articles had on my self-esteem still affects me to this day," she said, revealing that it was thinking about her younger self that got her through the most difficult days.
"I started thinking about 10-year-old Sophie, who grew up in the 90s seeing the likes of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera being considered 'healthy'," she said. "If she could have watched someone that ate pizza and loved her body and surfed without being self-conscious, maybe she wouldn't have grown up to feel this way about being in a bikini on television.
"So, on tough days I focused on little Soph and strutted up the beach for her."
The actress concluded her column by sharing the pride that she has in her body now, saying: "I love that my body is strong, tough and healthy. I love that I can swim, run, dance, sing, act, play and laugh. I can do those things regardless of what I look like."
"Aren't we bored of talking about bodies yet? Can we focus on something more important?" she added.
Home and Away airs weekdays at 1.45pm on Channel 5 and 6pm on 5STAR. First-look screenings air at 6.30pm on 5STAR and the show also streams on My5.
In Australia, the show airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7pm on Channel 7 and streams on 7plus.
Selected classic episodes are available via Prime Video in the UK.
Read more Home and Away spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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