Hunger Games star Sam Claflin is opening up about the effects the Hollywood industry has had on his mental health, as he shares how the industry’s casting requirements for his physical appearance have caused his body dysmorphia to get worse over the years.
In an appearance on Fearne Cotton’s popular podcast, Happy Place, the actor shared how his film roles often had him shirtless with very little notice. While he’s known for his role as Finnick Odair in the popular Hunger Games film franchise, the actor shared how his film roles often had him shirtless, serving as his first introduction to the harsh world of the film industry’s expectations.
“It’s an everyday struggle”
“A lot of the roles I played earlier on in my career… I had a topless scene in one of my first movies, but it wasn’t in the script. I got told a week before they were going to take my top off. I was like, ‘I haven’t been working out—what am I going to do?’” he shared on the podcast.
Claflin’s film debut was in the popular Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, a role for which he was initially unsure if he was right. “When I was cast in Pirates, I thought, ‘What on earth am I doing here?’” He shared.
“I’m incredibly insecure,” Claflin admitted. “I went to a screening of a film I was in, and afterwards people asked how it was, and I said, ‘I hated it.’ It’s my face I don’t like.”
As Claflin explained in an interview with The Telegraph in 2025, his insecurities have long been tied to the physical ideals of the film world. “There’s this assumption that it’s the men with six packs who sell the movie,” he explained.
As he continued to explain his experience with Cotton, Claflin defined the condition as an ongoing and exhausting process. “It’s an everyday struggle,” he explained. “I am massively impacted by what other people think and whether they think I look good or are a nice person.”
Despite the challenges of the film world, Claflin has been successful beyond the blockbuster genre with Me Before You, Their Finest, and Adrift under his belt. His role as Billy Dunne in Hulu’s Daisy Jones and the Six earned him a Globe nomination.
