Love Actually's Olivia Olson has opened up about the devastating moment a casting director told her to lose 10lbs for a role.
The child star, who played American schoolgirl Joanna who belted All I Want For Christmas at the end of the festive film, says she has also had her ethnicity questioned throughout her career.
The constant criticism left Olivia fearing she was close to "a mental breakdown" and led to her turning her back on the big screen.
"The auditioning process is constant rejection and at that age, having casting directors saying literally to your face, when you are 12 years old, ‘Oh, we would like you if only you dropped 10lbs’. It’s like, ‘What?’," she told The Sun.
“Any person who says that to a kid needs to re-evaluate, but it’s just how the world worked at the time."
She decided to work as a voice-over artist instead, adding that in that industry it "didn't matter what she looked like".
Olivia, who is now 30, said that she would often be at the centre of obnoxious comments about her race.
She said how she was only put up for Hispanic roles and constantly found herself asked if she could speak Spanish.
The actress would have to explain that she's not Hispanic, so naturally doesn't speak the language.
“People would ask, ‘What are you?’ It makes you feel like a zoo animal,” she said.
Olivia, who starred alongside Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson will be celebrating the film's 20th anniversary.
Her character Joanna Anderson, was the love interest of Sam - who was played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who went to extreme lengths to confess his love to her.
Twenty years ago viewers were left stunned by Olivia's beautiful voice as she sung Mariah Carey's hit.
Her singing was so good that the film's producers had to ask her to tone it down to make it more believable.
Love Actually was the first film she auditioned for and it threw her into a world that was very different to the one she grew up in.
She was adopted as a baby, along with her 15-year-old mum.
Her adopted parents are comedy writer Martin Olson, 66, and his wife Kay, a retired artist and astrologer and she and her mum lived with them in Westlake Village, California.
She said that she often thinks about the fact that she could have been raised by her young mum on the streets and that she had a lucky escape.
Do you enjoy reading about celebrities? Sign up for all the best celeb news from the Mirror here .
Her biological mum lived with her and her adopted parents for a year while she got her life on track.
After she starred in Love Actually she returned to school only to be bullied by the other kids.
She said that she was the only mixed race child in the school and that she always felt "like an outcast".
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct 0207 29 33033.
