Casting director once told Sarah Snook to “lose weight”

Succession star Sarah Snook has revealed that she was once called a “nobody” by casting directors and that she was told to “lose weight” among other things.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Snook – now an Emmy and Golden Globe winner – reflected on her past in the acting industry and how she was mistreated by casting directors and producers, though she did not name them.

One incident she cited happened on the set of a film she landed. According to Snook, she was told by the film’s casting directors that they did not want her in the film because she was “a nobody” but that “the director and the writer think you’re good for the role”.

The role came with a price though, as Snook went on to tell The Sunday Times that she was instructed to undergo an overhaul to make her “marketable”. Snook recounted the casting director saying: “So what we’ll do is change all of you so that you’re marketable: We’ll whiten your teeth, darken your hair, we’ll give you a personal trainer so you can lose weight and look the part.”

Sarah Snook as Shiv in the ‘Succession’ finale. CREDIT: HBO

While frustrated with the demands, Sarah Snook said she accepted the terms as she thought at the time that “in order for me to be successful, I have to be all the things that aren’t me.”

Elsewhere in the chat with the Sunday Times, Snook recounted being lambasted in front of a production’s cast and crew for eating “the tiniest bit of chocolate cake”, though she noted that a costume designer intervened and stood up for her.

Snook asked rhetorically: “The infantilising of women, to not be able to make their own decisions, why would we do that to women?”

Sarah Snook most recently took home the Golden Globe for her role as Shiv Roy in HBO’s Succession. Similarly, she is also up for an award at the Emmys tonight (January 15) for the same role.

Succession was named NME‘s second best TV show of 2023, with Nick Levine writing: “Never less than rambunctious and riveting, this final season also offered a welcome reminder that the 0.1% are just as messed up as the rest of us. They just behave so much worse.”

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