Zoë Kravitz Opens Up About Eating Disorder: 'You Could See My Rib Cage'
Zoë Kravitz seems so cool and confident, but the 26-year-old actress and singer has overcome some serious body issues.
"I had a really hard time when I was 16, 17, 18," the daughter of rocker Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet says in a new interview with Complex magazine. Kravitz explains that she struggled with both anorexia and bulimia until roughly two years ago.
"I think it was part of being a woman, and being surrounded by [fame]," she notes. "I don't think it was about the fame, but I think it was definitely about being around that world, seeing that world. I felt pressured."
Related: Seeing Double: Zoë Kravitz Channels Mom Lisa Bonet
Kravitz was in a healthier place as she took on the role of an anorexic in The Road Within in 2013, but it turned out her illness was not far enough behind her. She fell right back into her old ways, and didn't realize that she was skinny enough to play the part, even when she weighed just 90 pounds and stopped getting her period regularly.
"It was f---ed up, man," she says. "You could see my rib cage. I was just trying to lose more weight for the film but I couldn't see: You're there. Stop. It was scary."
Then, she describes having a sudden change of heart on New Year's Eve 2013.
"I just felt it was different," says one of the stars of the upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road. "I don't know... if a f---ing spirit came over me and said: 'You have to stop.'"
Related: Zoë Kravitz: I Once Found Ashton Kutcher Making an Omelet in My Kitchen
She doesn't regret taking on the part, though.
"It made me not only confront my demons, but also realize and accept an insecurity that's still there, and [that it's] easy to fall back into that pattern," she says. "I feel like something has left my body, like some part of me is gone now, something that was making me so insecure. And it feels amazing."
