Meghan Markle received a series of setbacks when she first tried to make it as an actress and was told she was "not thin enough" and "not pretty enough" to succeed.
The former ‘Suits’ star – who has quit acting following her engagement to Prince Harry – has recalled her struggles during her attempts to forge a career in the industry, admitting that while she was often told she didn’t look a particular way, the next day she would be told the complete opposite.
She wrote: "I was in my early 20s, still figuring so much out, and trying to find my value in an industry that judges you on everything that you’re not versus everything that you are. Not thin enough, not pretty enough, not ethnic enough, while also being too thin, too ethnic, too pretty the very next day.
"It felt unapologetically impossible, and I spent my evenings eating my feelings with grilled cheese sandwiches and cheap wine."
Meghan credits casting director April Webster – who has hired stars for the likes of ‘Star Wars’, ‘Mission: Impossible’ and ‘Lost’ – with giving her a "wake-up call" when she told the star to wear "less make-up" and just be more like herself.
In an article penned two years ago which has resurfaced, she wrote in Darling Magazine: "There was a casting director named April Webster who has basically casted everything of note from TV to film for close to two decades (think "Lost" and "Mission Impossible"). I had never met her before, and at my very first audition for her, she stopped me mid-scene and said so simply, "You need to know that you’re enough."
"I was breathless. No one had ever seen it, or perhaps no one had ever called me out, but there in that small box of a room in Burbank, this woman I had never met saw me. My gut reaction was to smile. To smile hard. Maybe that would keep the tears tucked behind my draping eyes.
"It wouldn’t have mattered if I cried, because she saw me. She saw all that self-doubt beaming through the self-tanner and excessive blush. "You need to know that you’re enough," she said. "Less makeup, more Meghan." She went on to say that I was like a "shrinking violet," wilted joy and energy and exuberance behind this shroud of insecurity. You couldn’t pay for a therapy session this good. And that moment, for me, was a wake-up call. (sic)"
Meghan Markle had acting struggles
