Hollywood has unrealistic beauty standards, something comedian and actress Alex Borstein knows all too well.
Appearing alongside other well-known actresses at Entertainment Weekly’s “Bold School” panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star spoke about elements of the industry that bother her.
“What bothers me most is this obsession and obsession with youth and beauty,” Borstein says. “It’s so boring.”
“So many people are starting to look exactly the same,” she continued. “All the girls are getting nose jobs, filters, lip jobs. It’s insane. And they’re obsessed with it.”
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Sheryl Lee Ralph, Alex Borstein and Kate Mulgrew spoke at Entertainment Weekly’s Bold School panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
Kate Mulgrew, who was sitting next to Borstein, asked her if she thought things were changing.
“I was on screen for five years,” she says with a bit of self-deprecation, before telling an even longer tale of self-reflection.
Alex Borstein played the more masculine Susie Myerson in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. (Philippe Antonello/Prime Video/Amazon Studios)
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“I always joke about the movie Tootsie, has anyone heard of it?” she asked the audience of the 1982 Dustin Hoffman movie, in which Hoffman plays an actor who can’t get roles because of his difficult personality. He reincarnates as actress Dorothy Michaels and lands a job on a soap opera.
“I met Dustin Hoffman once and I said to him, ‘Oh my God, I’m such a big fan of his. I love you.’ And I said, ‘You’ve taught me that ugly women can be in movies,'” Borstein recalled.
In the 1982 film Tootsie, Dustin Hoffman plays an actor who reincarnates as an actress in order to land a role. (Courtesy of Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection)
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“He laughed at first, then he said, ‘Don’t do that,’ and then he got really angry. ‘Stop it. Don’t do that. You’re not ugly, you’re beautiful. You’re different. You’re packaged differently.'”
“And then he went crazy,” she continued about the now 86-year-old actor.
Alex Borstein says Dustin Hoffman’s words of encouragement helped her stay in the industry. (Getty Images)
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“But it was really that moment of realization: ‘Hey, maybe I can do this,’ ‘I’ll just go ahead and see what happens,’ and lo and behold, I’m still here.”
Representatives for Hoffman and Borstein did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
