In a personal essay for Glamour published on June 24, the star revealed she struggled with both binge and restricted eating during her marriage to fellow actor Andrew Form from 2007 to 2020.

“The first year of our marriage, I started to binge and developed an eating disorder,” she wrote. “[Form] was kind and safe and supported me. I knew something was wrong with me.”

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According to Brewster, she “had no creative output or outlet” during this time and “felt isolated”, which further fuelled her disorder.

“While my husband worked a full day on set, I would do the occasional audition,” she continued. “I was bored. I would raid the mini bar at the Four Seasons for snacks and then promptly go downstairs to make sure it was restocked and paid for before my husband realised anything was missing. I had a buzzing sense of chaos within me that clashed with my actual inertia. I was stuck.”

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A couple of years later, Brewster wrote, her eating disorder “swung to the other extreme”.

“I started to restrict rather than binge,” she wrote, adding that obsessing over her diet allowed her to ignore other issues in her career and marriage.

“The cliché that controlling your food gives you the illusion of control of your life is true. But it also does something else,” she wrote. “A fixation with your body gives you tunnel vision. I was so focused on the number on the scale and the number of calories I consumed in a day that I ignored all other problems.”

Following years of therapy, Brewster says she’s achieved “a level of peace” with her body.

“If body issues do come up, I deal with them head-on,” she added.

The actress also touched on the pressure Hollywood puts on actresses to look a certain way in a recent interview with lifestyle website The Retaility.

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“Ten years ago, I was so concerned about, ‘How does my stomach look? How does my butt look?’” she said. “There was so much pressure on actresses to look a certain way and that’s exhausting and such a waste of energy, because instead of reading or focusing on your character, you’re focused on ‘How do I look right now and is it perfect enough?’”

Brewster also recalled getting comments from Hollywood higher-ups about her appearance.

“I used to get notes, ‘They’re asking you to lose some weight,’ and I would carry that for years because how could you not?” she said.

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Despite the treatment she experienced, Brewster said she believes the entertainment industry is “going in the right direction”.

“When I watch TV, I’m like, ‘Wow. It’s so refreshing that the women can wear stuff that’s not [revealing],’” she said. “They’re not being treated as sex symbols unless that’s important to their character. That’s awesome and it’s reflecting life a little bit more.”

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