Tuesday, November 20, 2012 5:02pm ET by Newsdesk
Glee's Amber Riley breaks down as she talks about body imageAmber Riley, who plays the vocal powerhouse Mercedes on hit U.S. series 'Glee', has revealed that being a size 16 in Hollywood is a constant struggle. The star took part in an emotional interview as part of MTV's This Is How I Made It and broke down in tears while talking about the pressure to be thin in Los Angeles: "Hollywood is a very hard place to be in. It really is. Being the person I am, you know, the size I am, being a woman, being a black woman, there's not a lot of roles for us." She added that every part she auditioned for became the same role and she was constantly typecast: "I kept on auditioning. I was being offered the girl who sits in the corner and eats all day, the girl who committed suicide because she was fat." "I never wanted to play a character that hated herself. I wanted people to know that those aren't the only roles for people like me, normal girls." Riley also explained that having a strong upbringing helped her to cope with the personal criticism from casting directors: "Going to the auditions and having the casting director say you need to loose a little weight, I didn't understand why people couldn't accept me for who I was. And the rejection started wearing on my self-esteem." "I'm not going to conform, and hurt myself, and do something crazy to be a size 2. My parents always instilled knowing that your beautiful, that your fearfully and wonderfully made, and that you know who you are."
Watch her sing acapella on a radio show below:
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