Zooey Deschanel’s Take: Actresses Are Too Thin, ‘It’s Scary’

Zooey Deschanel is known for her quirky sense of humor and feminine style, and her role on television series New Girl has thrust her further into the limelight. But the 33-year-old actress reportedly isn’t comfortable with everything that has become the new normal in Hollywood.

According to an interview with Glamour Magazine, which is featuring Deschanel on the cover of February’s issue, actresses in Hollywood are “too skinny,” and it’s giving people — especially young girls — a false impression of what it takes to succeed in Hollywood.

“Women I admired growing up— Debra Winger, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep—were all beautiful and thin, but not too thin,” she says. In the February issue of the magazine, the actress adds,

“There are a lot of actresses who are unhealthy-skinny—much, much too skinny. You can’t Pilates to that. I’m a very small person, and if I lost 15 pounds, I’d look like them; it’s scary. For young girls, what does that say? You need to look this way to be successful? That’s not true. You do not need to look or be anorexic to be successful in Hollywood. The range of what’s acceptable is larger than what people believe.”

Deschanel, whose divorce from musician Ben Gibbard was finalized last month, notes that she’s been happy with how things have worked out in her career so far. Her hit comedy, New Girl — in which she stars and produces — has earned her a handful of Emmy nominations.

“If New Girl had been a movie, I don’t know whether I would have been given the opportunity to do it,” she said, explaining that she had never landed starring roles in films.

“I’m just going where the material is,” she said. “Some of the smartest people run the network I’m on.”

Deschanel has been criticized for being anti-feminist because of her girly style and feminine views. Fox News reports that Deschanel responded to the accusations with strong words:

“I’m just being myself. There is not an ounce of me that believes any of that crap that they say. We can’t be feminine and be feminists and be successful? I want to be a f**king feminist and wear a f**king Peter Pan collar. So f**king what?”