Eiza González recalls news anchors calling her ‘fat’ and ‘ugly’ as teen actor

Eiza González and Millie Bobby Brown have more in common than one might think.

The Fountain of Youth star mentioned Brown during a recent appearance on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast Dinner’s on Me, where she recalled going through a “jarring” experience with public scrutiny surrounding her appearance, similar to what the Electric State star has recently opened up about.

González, who began her career onscreen as a child with a brief stint on Sesame Street in Mexico, told Ferguson that hearing Brown call out particular journalists by name for “dissecting my face, my body” and “my choices,” brought back memories of her own experiences as a teen star of a Mexican telenovela.

“It really made me sad because… when I was like a teenager, you know, I broke into the industry,” the Baby Driver star remembered, sharing that it had been a hard time for her after the death of her father “in a really tragic accident,” which left her in a “deep depression.”

“Then I found [a] glitz of happiness in acting and my mom sort of started guiding me towards it in a way to keep me busy just to, like, have extracurricular things to mentally occupy me,” she explained, adding that she was “lucky” to land her first real role after a year and a half of trying.

González was cast in Lola: Érase una vez, a remake of Floricienta, a famous “Cinderella-type of story.” But at the time, she said she was “just not ready” for the media attention that followed her casting.

“[Viewers] were waiting for the reveal of this character, and I came on stage, and I sang a song, whatever,” she recalled. “The next morning, I’m watching the version of Today in Mexico, and they’re gonna talk about it. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, it’s just happening, this is crazy.’ I’m doing what I wanna do. And the presenters came on, and they’re 40 and 50-year-olds, and they’re like, ‘Ugh, she’s so ugly. She’s so fat. They could have gotten anyone, like why would they get her?'”

González became audibly emotional as she recalled the experience. “I remember even right now, I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, it was just so jarring,” she told Ferguson. “And I was just like sitting there, like embarrassed with myself. Like even 1748656077 it makes me tear up.”

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The actress said she tried to pretend she hadn’t seen the broadcast, but “it was the beginning of it all.”  

She added, “Now you become this child where you’re chasing approval, and now you’re like completely lost of identity. And you’re also completely lost because you’re mourning and you’re grieving, so you’re sad. And I’m touring and having to smile and be a role model and pretend like I’m okay when everyone’s bombarding [me].”

But González credits her “amazing mother,” who made her feel safe about being herself during that journey. “I definitely got lost. I was very unkind to myself, my body, my thoughts, my soul, because I just never felt good enough,” she shared. “And it’s something that stays with you forever because it’s sort of brands you, it marks you for life. And so it becomes a catch-up.”

While González has come a long way since her days as a teen telenovela star, the memories of those experiences were awakened when she saw Brown strike back at tabloid headlines targeting her appearance in March.

The 21-year-old actress, who rose to prominence at just 12 for her role as Eleven/Jane Hopper on the hit sci-fi series Stranger Things, addressed the public scrutiny surrounding her appearance during the press tour for Electric State. In a defiant video shared on Instagram, Brown said, “This isn’t journalism. This is bullying.”

Brown slammed the headlines from “people who are so desperate to tear young women down,” including one inquiring about what she had “done to her face” and another from English comedian Matt Lucas, who took a “savage swipe” at her new “mommy makeover.” Condemning the reporter for “amplifying an insult rather than questioning why a grown man is mocking a young woman’s appearance,” Brown called it “disturbing” that “adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices.”

González applauded Brown for her strength and continued vocalness about how Hollywood treats young women.

“I really identified with what she was saying because she was reading this, she was explaining about her terrifying [experience] and I just found that really interesting because she was talking about being a grown woman and sort of finding the way she wants to dress and act and be, and and she doesn’t have to do it under other people’s terms. It’s under her terms,” she told Ferguson.

Brown has previously spoken out against being sexualized at a young age and how it has “resulted in pain and insecurity.” Her Stranger Things costar Finn Wolfhard has also called out harassment from fans of the show.

Listen to González and Ferguson’s conversation on the Dinner’s On Me podcast above.