I just toured Sony Movie studios in LA. Our guide told us that many female actresses have it in their contract that they must be present for only 70% of their characters scenes in the movie. For example, if the scene requires a close-up of their legs or breasts, they might mandate a female double to be case in that scene. So my first question is this:
(1) Why are female actresses so vain or insecure?
I know this question was already answered but I had a few things I wanted to add. I'm certainly no expert on any of this but knew a few people who were trying to get into modeling.
I had a friend in high school who was outstandingly beautiful and told she should model since she was a kid so later on in high school she gave it a try. She got a few local jobs, but soon gave it up because she said she absolutely hated the business.
For instance, in order to get jobs, you have to go to a casting call (I could be getting these terms wrong--anyone out there who knows better, please feel free to correct me), which is basically an interview, and she told me that you walk into a room of people who immediately tell you everything they hate about the way you look, walk, and carry yourself--any little visual flaw they can find (or imagine), they will point it out and talk about it with each other in front of you. She said that as soon as she walked into one such call, a woman immediately said, "I hate her hair--it has to go. She'd definitely have to cut it off."
It's a toxic atmosphere in which your entire livelihood is based on looks and how far you can go with them, and in order to keep working, you have to keep up the look that everyone deems is fashionable. I saw an interview a while back with Paulina Porizkova, a very famous model from the 80's, who explained that how you look becomes everything--it's the only thing that will get you jobs, and you become dependent on your looks to make sure you're able to obtain everything your family needs, from school supplies to health insurance. In other words, if you're NOT always worried about your looks and trying to maintain or improve them, you won't get any jobs. It's like any other career--you have to concentrate on, and stay on top of, the skills or characteristics that will bring you work.
My then-husband was trying to break into modeling as well, and we went to a few open calls in which some of the agents would sit at a table and bark soul-crushing criticisms at many of the hopeful applicants, even though many of them were just young kids.
Imagine being a size 2 (for all the guys who aren't familiar with women's sizes, that's pretty doggone tiny), walking into a roomful of 300-lb. chainsmoking men, and having them all tell you how fat and disgusting you are and that you need to lose a good 25 pounds (I've read that the current industry standard requires that most female fashion models be a size 0--or smaller.) As if that's not bad enough, now days, even if you get a job, the entire world will be sitting there waiting to criticize your every perceived "flaw" with just a few taps on their phones.
Needless to say, my friend from high school was perfectly happy to walk away from all that--and later became an attorney instead.