Chloe Grace Moretz struggled with body dysmorphia and became a “recluse” after a cruel “Family Guy” meme. The 25-year-old star has reflected on the way she was talked about online after a photographer snapped her walking into a hotel carrying a pizza box, which sparked a viral meme mocking her body with “long legs” and a “short torso”.
She told Hunger magazine: “Everyone was making fun of my body and I brought it up with someone and they were like, ‘Oh, shut the f*** up, it’s funny.’
“And I just remember sitting there and thinking, my body is being used as a joke and it’s something that I can’t change about who I am, and it is being posted all over Instagram.
“It was something so benign as walking into a hotel with leftovers. And to this day, when I see that meme, it’s something very hard for me to overcome.”
She admitted the fallout made her “kind of sad”, and she became very “self-conscious” even when she was in her element at red carpet events.
She added: “After that, I was kind of sad. It took a layer of something that I used to enjoy, which was getting dressed up and going to a carpet and taking a photo, and made me super self-conscious.
“And I think that body dysmorphia – which we all deal with in this world – is extrapolated by the issues of social media. It’s a headf***.” In response, the “Carrie” actress “became a recluse”, and was able to detach herself from fame by not being pictured all the time.
She said: “I basically became a recluse. It was great because I got away from the photographers and I was able to be myself, and to have so many experiences that people didn’t photograph, but at the same time it made me severely anxious when I was photographed.
“My heart rate would rise and I would hyperventilate.”