Elisha Cuthbert seems to work pretty steadily on TV and in movies here and there. She had a couple of movies this year and has another in pre-production. She also appears on podcasts and talks about how her reputation as a sex symbol affected her life and career. Elisha was on Rachel Bilson’s podcast over the summer and talked about the pressure from studios to pose for men’s magazines after The Girl Next Door came out. And Elisa just appeared on her old friend Paris Hilton’s podcast to talk again about the pressure of living up to that role and how people make comments about her aging.
Elisha Cuthbert’s role as an ex-porn star in 2004’s The Girl Next Door solidified her reputation as a sex symbol. Now, nearly two decades later, the actress says society still pressures her to live up to that title.
“There was this pressure of, like, maybe the fashion world or whatever saw me as a certain thing when really it was a character,” she told Paris Hilton on Monday’s episode of her podcast, This is Paris, of the attention that came after the movie was released.
Even today, she says it’s rare for people to not bring up the fact that she was once named the “most beautiful woman in television” by men’s publications like Maxim and FHM in the mid-2000s.
“It ends up getting in the bio somehow, and you’re just like, what does that even mean? It’s not really a reflection of me as an artist,” the 24 alum explained. “But on the flip side of it … if that’s what they see and they liked that, too, I’m OK with it. For a long time, I’ve had a lot of disdain for it and wanted to push against it, but I kept getting thrown back into that sort of stereotype. Now I’ve learned to sort of embrace it.”
Though her role in The Girl Next Door “struck a chord with a lot of people,” it’s not something she dwells on in her everyday life.
“I certainly don’t try to keep up with it,” Cuthbert, 39, said. “I would go crazy if I felt like I had to, every time I showed up [to an event], I looked like her. For me it’s not even me, it’s that character. So it seems so strange to live up to a character I played when I was 21.”
Given the impact her role had at the time, Cuthbert says fans refuse to let her age.
“Comments are just so weird. It’s like, ‘Oh you look older!’ Sure I do. That’s the way the world works,” she said. “I’ll be on social media and I’ll see a comment like, ‘Oh, why are you so old now?’ Because I am! Because I’m just older than I was. I’m like, I don’t know what you’re comparing it too. Do you know what I mean? There’s this weird feeling, like, people don’t want to see actors or musicians age in any way. So it’s a sorta strange thing.”
The comments really are weird. Obviously Elisha looks older, that movie was filmed nearly 20 years ago. I don’t know if it’s people not wanting her to age so much as people not used to seeing the natural aging on celebrities. Elisha does not look old by any means, but she does not look as tweaked and ‘toxed as other celebs who try really hard to stave off the aging process. I also wonder if part of it is streaming and the fact that people have may watched Girl Next Door for the first time and then go to check out her social media and are shocked it’s 20 years later. Anyway, I guess it’s good that Elisha isn’t trying to hang on to that character and live up to expectations of her looks based on that. I do think she may actually be the one that keeps bringing up all her men’s magazine accolades. She’s definitely embracing it and possibly putting in the bio herself. It’s been a talking point of hers in two recent podcasts and it kind of seems to me that she has a lower profile than she thinks she does.
Elisha and Paris in 2006
photos credit: Michael Williams and Xavier Collin/Avalon and Insight News and Features, Inc.
Don’t worry they’ll all get older too
But I understand, you have a character in a film that is fixed in time, its always jarring to see them age in reality despite bein “fixed” elsewhere in front of your eyes.
But I would never be so daft as to comment that to the person!
It’s hard to tell the time period of movies filmed in the 2000s and 2010s, unless maybe I look at the type of phones they’re using in the movie.
I wonder if that’s a strange problem stars of that era face when people see their movies. People assume a movie could have been filmed today. I think I was startled to realize the Miami Vice movie with Colin Farrell was released in 2006.
The stars who aged in the 1980s probably didn’t have this problem.
First, those who will recognize her are from the same era. We’ll all about the same age, +/- 40 and my friends keep thinking that they still look young. i try not to roll my eyes backwards so far but, like I commented in the past,” gurl, you older, you look older and there’s no way you look like you 25.” Im the one who has to break it to them to stop living behind pink glasses, and I get the shocked look from all of them, like “you did NOT just say that! lol Sorry to break your denial party gang!
I think Nina Dobrev has said something similar about people asking why she looks older. I don’t think she’s even that old yet. It’s a little weird.
All of these people still look good though. I never look at a photo and think “what happened?”
Unfortunately, Nina also got a lot of cosmetic work done, including a bleph, that makes her look starkly different and did “age her” prematurely.
Did she really? She’s so young! I was wondering what had changed when I saw she was in that movie Love Hard, I didn’t even recognize her at first. Ugh, being 40 now and really seeing the sun damage and aging come together in my face is depressing and freaking me out because I’m starting to see my dad when I look in the mirror. I can’t even talk about my neck, like what the hell! One day it just got old! I would totally do a bleph right now but I wish I would’ve enjoyed my youth when I had it and not been so hard on myself.
It must be so hard to age publicly. We see the battle every day, particularly for women. There’s a minority shift, with Helen Mirren, et al, but it’s basically still the fact that aging men are seen as getting finer as they get older while women are on a downward slope.
They want her to be 39 but look 19 forever.
Her response should be, “Oh and are you 21 forever?”
Men can be absolutely ridiculous.
I only remember her from 24, and she definitely could act beyond pretty. Even if for most of the show she portrayed someone doing teenage stuff (babysitting, dating, rebuking an overprotective father) by the end her character was already a mother and she looked like an actual adult. I’m more puzzled by the long yellowish hair, since she was always having this short icy blond layers. But overall she looks pretty great and almost the same. Just an inusual Hollywood someone whose facial refreshments have been (tastefully) relative minimum, and is not afraid to keep some of her OG body phat.
She was really fun in Happy Endings, too. That’s a repeat watch for me.
Oh I miss Happy Endings! That was such a fun show, and she was great in it
I really enjoyed her in Happy Endings too. I’m surprised she hasn’t done more comedies since, she was good.
Everytime I see her I think Happy Endings. Now that’s a show that deserves a reboot.
I watched it for the first time a few months ago. During the schmaltzy first couple of episodes, I thought “oh she’s the weak link.” But then the show kicked into high gear, and she was a low key killer. She had perfect timing.
She looks fantastic. People are so stupid about life and aging.
I love the girl next door it’s one of my favs! She’s so beautiful STILL and looks amazing imo
I remember her from her Are You Afraid of the Dark days. We are the same age.