Romola Garai is a two-time Golden Globe nominated actress, but she has a less than favorable opinion of Hollywood. “I did a bit of modeling when I was a teenager and, even then, nobody asked me to lose weight. It’s different with film, because it’s not about weight, it’s about control,” she observed in a recent interview with The Guardian. “It’s an industry with a clear agenda of ensuring women’s relationships with their reflection on screen make them feel inadequate.”

The candid conversation touches on Garai’s experience filming her first studio film in Hollywood, 2004’s “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.” Just 17 years old at the time, Garai was forced to stand in her underwear while a female producer appraised her body. She pointed at the teen’s thighs and told her, “This isn’t good enough.” The actress was “weighed in and out every day, with a dietician flown to Puerto Rico to make sure she stayed underweight,” the source writes. “It screwed me up for years,” Garai revealed. “Not only did it completely change how I felt about my body, but I felt like I’d failed because I hadn’t fought back. I felt complicit, because I didn’t say no. I signed off on Photoshopped images and felt terrible for perpetrating this… lie.”

What a nightmare. Many actresses have spoken out about the pressure to lose weight or maintain a low weight in Hollywood, but they rarely elaborate on the gory details. What happened to Garai is horrifying, and unfortunately probably not all that uncommon. It’s no wonder she “never went back to Hollywood again.”

“Someone said the only thing that was convincing in the whole film was the look of pure misery in my eyes,” Garai said of “Havana Nights.” But the experience was something of a blessing in disguise. “It was my feminist epiphany,” she said.

Garai received Golden Globe nominations for her performances in “The Hour” and “Emma.” “Suffragette,” “One Day,” and “Atonement” are among her other credits.