Camila Mendes has revealed her eating disorder hit its peak while filming the first season of Riverdale.
In a candid interview, the 28-year-old said that she was “so insecure” during the hit show’s first season, and that this insecurity fuelled her eating disorder which she had been battling since childhood.
“I would watch every episode and be like, ‘Oh my God, my stomach there…’,” Camila told Going Mental podcast host Eileen Kelly. “I was, like, so insecure, and it really fuelled my eating disorder.
“When you’re in your early 20s, like, your body is fluctuating. . . my body hadn’t settled into itself yet. I was looking at myself, taking myself apart. My stomach, you know, my arms, my chin, anything — I would obsess over. ”
The Do Revenge star added that this obsession “got in the way” of her acting because thinking about how she looked on camera “really f***s with your process”.
“I was really afraid of eating carbs, and what would happen is I would avoid it for a long period of time, and then I would binge and eat a bunch and then purge,” she explained.
“So it was this, like, terrible cycle. She helped me overcome that by reintroducing bread into my life to be like, ‘See, it’s not going to kill you. ‘”
Camila added that there were certain triggers that would set her back when she was overcoming her disorder, such as not hearing the phrase “you look so good” enough.
“When I don’t hear that, I think I look terrible,” she explained. “When no one’s commenting on how thin I look. ”
In a 2019 interview with Women’s Health, Camila Mendes called her eating disorder a “curse”.
“I’ve only recently kind of gotten better,” she said. “It’s something that’s still a curse to me. It’s not like that ever goes away.
“Whenever I do feel insecure, I go back to health. What can I do that’s healthy? Health is what’s important, not appearance. That mentality is what takes me out of the insecure, anxious thoughts. ”