Sarah Snook says the 'unrealistic beauty standard' in Hollywood 'makes more women unhappy'

Succession star Sarah Snook is calling out
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Sarah Snook may be on one of TV's hottest shows, but the Succession star isn't down with Hollywood's beauty standards.

"I mean, every time you get a role, you're like: 'Oh, this one's the one. I'm going to really work out and get fit and look like the movie star I would hope to become or have a career doing," the 33-year-old actress told Vogue Australia.

"And every time, I'm like: 'Can I really be f***ed subscribing to an unrealistic beauty standard that then perpetuates and makes more women unhappy because they feel like they can't attain something that's not actually realistic anyway?'"

The Australian star has "been chainsawing and chopping wood to keep in shape" when she's not in front of the camera. With her new husband, comedian Dave Lawson, she enjoys relaxing at home at the couple's sprawling estate outside Melbourne, where their property is home to a koala, wombats and kangaroos. While the pandemic was a struggle for many, the period managed to be a personal highlight for the couple, who originally came together as friends during the pandemic's initial lockdown period. Soon, they were romantically involved.

"At the beginning of the pandemic last year, I got locked down in Melbourne with one of my best mates and we fell in love," she told the magazine.

Snook proposed to Lawson, and the couple was married in the backyard of her Brooklyn home over a year ago.

“It’s been a ride," she shared. "There’s so much heartache and sadness in the world, but on a micro personal level, I’ve been very fortunate. There’s a really lovely grace in that without the pandemic, we might not have ended up together so quickly.”

While Snook is the same age as her tough-as-nails Succession character Shiv Roy, she doesn't feel there's much else that she shares with the heiress. While she likes that Shiv is "forthright, that she speaks her own mind," she recognizes that Roy most likely derives her worth from knowing that "she believes that she’s allowed to be in any room because she could probably buy the building."

However, Snook doesn't exactly relate to Roy's gratuitous wealth.

“I have no idea what it is like to be a billionaire, other than through research," she said. "Whereas, I’m on this farm with Dave in nature and I’m like, ‘Woo hoo.’”

Still, the role has been "an interesting one to see break through,” Snook said. “I always feel like I’ve played by choice and good fortune, interesting, complex, strong and a good diversity of women, in terms of their characters. They often have a strength and they’re not pushovers, but there’s usually been a redeeming softness that they’re protecting. And Shiv has that as well, but her defense of that softness is so different from who I am as a person.”

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