Doctor Who actor Jodie Whittaker has revealed that she was asked to have dermal fillers and her top lip waxed for a role.
The 36-year-old discussed the world’s unrealistic beauty standards during a conversation with her former Broadchurchco-star David Tennant on his podcast David Tennant Does a Podcast With… and said she was glad not to have succumbed to the pressures to alter her appearance.
The Skelmanthorpe-born actor said that while she hasn’t been asked to lose weight during her career, she was once asked to have her moustache waxed.
"I didn't know I had one!" she told Tennant. "I was having a make-up test. The translator was a young kid who said, 'they want you to have your tash waxed'. I said 'no' because I'd probably be allergic to the wax.
"I said, 'Sorry you will just have to colour it in.'"
She also recalled an incident in her career when someone told her she had a “very deep” frown like to which she now says: “Thank f*ck I wasn’t impressionable.”
The actor said of her forehead: “I wouldn't change it for the world and there are a lot of episodes where you're squinting and I think if I didn't have that frown line you wouldn't know it was sunny.
"I'm allergic, it's not even vanity... And also for me I'm too young," she added, referring to the use of fillers.
Dermal fillers are injections used to fill out wrinkles and creases in the skin with the likes of collagen and hyaluronic acid, according to the NHS. They can also be used to increase the volume and definition of lips and cheeks.
When Tennant highlighted that some celebrities undergo surgery regardless of their age, Whittaker replied: “I also think it's an undeniable pressure on humanity at the moment to look your best a lot of the time, and I think I'm lucky that my journey through the world of acting has very been about screwing up my face and nagging my eyes out.”
"It's not about being the ingenue," she continued. "There isn't that pressure to look a certain way. It has been asked though. There are certainly times when I was younger in certain scenarios there were suggestions that potentially you might want to think about certain stuff, and it fascinates me.”
Whittaker, who is the first woman to take on the title role in Doctor Who on the BBC, added that she hopes that ongoing conversations about inequality and misogyny in Hollywood will see the end of unrealistic beauty standards on men and women.
“Maybe these things will be a thing of the past and we’ll finally accept that we look different, and that is ace,” she said.
To listen to Jodie Whittaker's full interview on David Tennant Does a Podcast With…, click here.
