Illustrator, author and Harry Potter actress Jessie Cave, who played Lavender Brown in the hit series, has spoken about the pressure she faced on film sets as a child and how gaining weight led to some “uncomfortable” experiences.
Speaking to The Independent about her brilliant-sounding new novel Sunset, which is about sisterhood and dealing with grief in your twenties, Jessie also spoke about her time as an actress – and the unrealistic body ideals placed on public figures. “I put on a lot of weight after filming Harry Potter, just because I wasn’t starving myself,” she admitted. “And I grew up and that’s just how it is.”
She went on to say that she was treated differently when she returned to film Deathly Hallows (parts 1 and 2). “I was treated like a different species. It was awful,” Jessie recalled. “It was probably more about me and my insecurity because I knew I didn’t fit into the same size jeans anymore, but it wasn’t a time when actresses were bigger than a size 12. And in the previous film I had been bigger and now I was a size 14. So that was awful, it was a really uncomfortable experience.”
Jessie then opened up about what it was like when filming finished and the light that had been shining on her – in her own words – “went out”, and how she, in turn, felt that her changing body was affecting the way she was being recorded.
“You get a little bit fatter or you’re not as important anymore, and then the lights go out and you have to navigate the dark,” she said. “I definitely felt invisible when I gained a little bit of weight. And since then I’ve had weird issues with my weight and work. It’s so shitty, but that’s the way it is. Women have to deal with it all the time.”
Jessie also spoke about how the fierce competition in the film industry can take a huge toll on a person’s self-esteem. “It’s like you go on a million first dates that all go great and then you never hear from them again,” she said. “I definitely freaked out in my early twenties and thought, ‘But they said they liked me and I’d be perfect for this?’ But then you realise there are 100 other girls who are just as good as you, if not better, maybe prettier, maybe skinnier, and they’re perfect for this.”
Ultimately, however, Jessie seems much happier with her life today, noting that things could have been different if she had stayed in a smaller body.
“If I had stayed thin – unnaturally thin, unhappily thin – I probably would have gotten more acting roles and then I wouldn’t have started writing,” Jessie said. “And then I don’t know who I would be now, because writing is who I am. I’m almost grateful that I gained so much weight.”
We loudly applaud her openness and can hardly wait to read the book.
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