Ariana Grande fought back tears during a video interview with French journalist Salima Poumbga when asked about how she copes with beauty standards and constant criticisms over her looks and body. The Grammy winner has been the target of increased online bullying amid her global press tour for “Wicked,” for which she’s an Oscar contender in the best supporting actress race.
“I’ve been kind of doing this in front of the public and kind of been, you know, a specimen in a petri dish, really, since I was 16 or 17,” Grande said holding back tears. “So, I have heard it all. I’ve heard every version of it of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it and then it’s wrong for different reasons. But that’s everything. Even the simplest thing like your appearance. It’s hard to protect yourself from that noise. It’s something that is uncomfortable no matter what scale you’re experiencing it on. Even if you go to Thanksgiving dinner and your granny says, ‘You look skinnier. What happened? You look heavier. What happened?’ That is something that is uncomfortable and horrible no matter where it’s happening and no matter the scale it’s happening on.”
“There’s a comfortability that we shouldn’t have at all in commenting on others’ looks or health or how they present themselves, from what you’re wearing to your body to your face,” Grande continued. “There’s a comfortability that I think is really dangers to all parties involved. I am lucky to have a support system to know and trust that I am beautiful. But I do know what the pressure of that noise feels like. It’s been a resident in my life since I was 17. I just don’t invite it in anymore. It’s not welcome. I have work to do. I have a life to live. I have friends to love on. It’s not invited. I don’t leave space for it anymore. No one has the right to say shit.”
Grande’s “Wicked” co-star Cynthia Erivo is currently attending the Red Sea Film Festival and was asked to weigh in on the cyber-bullying Grande has faced during the “Wicked” press tour. Erivo called such harassment “quite dangerous.”
“It’s easy to be behind the computer typing words about a person you don’t know anything about,” Erivo added. “What a person who has never met you thinks is never more important than what you think of yourself.”
Watch Grande’s latest interview in the video below. “Wicked” is playing in theaters nationwide from Universal Pictures.
