Sarah Snook has said she was “too young and naive” to challenge a producer who chastized her several years ago on set for eating a piece of chocolate cake.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today program, the 36-year-old Succession star said she now takes a totally different attitude – “I eat whatever I want, it’s my own body and my own choice” – but back then she was trying to make her way in the business.
Snook told The Sunday Times 10 days ago about the producer, who berated her for eating a piece of chocolate cake in front of cast and crew, later telling her: “We don’t really want you because you’re a nobody, but the director and the writer think you’re good for the role.” She has not named the producer or project.
“I was too young and naive,” she told the BBC today. “That’s the unfortunate situation when a person is in a position of authority taking advantage, mindlessly saying something that could be taken the wrong way and taken on in a certain context that holds with that person for the rest of their life.”
Snook’s revelation comes as more actors feel emboldened to speak about how they were treated in the early parts of their career. Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham told the BBC last week that a drama teacher once told her “she looks like one side of her face has had a stroke,” while The Crown’s Claire Foy opened up about someone who gave her the “worst note” she has ever received from a director, telling her to “start acting, darling.”
During a wide-ranging interview, Snook also gave her thoughts on her fellow Australian Margot Robbie‘s Barbie snub by the Oscars, which has already attracted plenty attention in Hollywood.
“I was so proud of Margot when I saw the film,” said Snook of Barbie. “It was my first outing as a new mum, I was away from my daughter for three hours and spent the entire time just crying and not just because of the hormones. I am disappointed for her but proud as a fellow Aussie.
Snook, who won the Best Actress award at last week’s Emmys for her role as Shiv Roy in Succession, is in London promoting her West End play The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which she is playing all 26 characters, the vast majority of whom are men.
She said “there is nothing like live theater, it’s for the soul.”
