Margot Robbie shared an unexpected gift she once received from a colleague, which was a book advising her to ‘eat less’.
The star of Wuthering Heights recounted this experience during an interview with Complex, where she was joined by Charli XCX, who is involved in the creation of the movie’s soundtrack album.
Robbie, who is 35, described the book as an attempt to influence her physique. She recalled: “Very, very early in my career, an actor I worked with, a male actor, gave me a book called ‘Why French Women Don’t Get Fat.’”
She elaborated further: “It was essentially a book telling you to eat less.”
This book, authored by Mireille Guiliano in 2007, elicited a strong reaction from Robbie, as she expressed: “I was like, ‘Whoa, f*** you, dude.’”
There’s no point in trying to uncover the identity of the man who gave her the book, as Robbie mentioned she has ‘no idea where he would even be now’.
She continued to tell Charli: “He essentially gave me a book to let me know that I should lose weight.
“I was like, ‘Wow.’”
Given the timing of the book’s publication, Robbie was likely appearing in the well-known Australian soap opera, Neighbours, where she acted from 2008 to 2011.
Following her time on Neighbours, she expanded her reach to American audiences with the ABC show Pan Am, and subsequently achieved widespread recognition after starring alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street two years later.
Her revelation sparked disappointment among online users. One Redditor commented: “I mean sadly that book was reflective of the industry at large because look how different she is now.”
Another individual shared: “I remember this book. Sadly, I thought it would be useful and help me become a more elegant woman. I got to the part about how men love to dote on petite women and that if you were tall and large-framed, well—that’s bad luck and life would just be harder. I did not read any more of the book. Still haunts me as one of the most toxic messages I’ve ever received.”
Another user added: “I need to find out who she is talking about. This is the real tea.”
According to Guiliano’s book, ‘French women don’t get fat’ due to their lifestyle of moderation, which allows them to ‘eat as they like and don’t get fat’.