Orange Is The New Black’s Samira Wiley was ‘body shamed’ on photoshoot: ‘It really affected me’

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Samira Wiley has explained why she’s passionate about encouraging others to appreciate their bodies after being body-shamed during her career.

The Orange Is the New Black and Handmaid’s Tale star recalled an unwarranted comment about her figure being made during a photoshoot, which left her feeling “horrible”.

Wiley opened up to People magazine about her journey to self-acceptance, explaining how the incident “really affected” her.

“I remember this one so vividly because feel like I have a healthy body image,” she said, “and I was on the shoot and one of the outfits they put me in, was something that showed a bit of midriff.

“And honestly, I thought it was fine. But someone on the set was like, ‘Oh, don’t worry. We can fix that in post.'”

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Samira Wiley, who shot to fame as Poussey Washington in Orange Is the New Black, explained that she had been in a great place with body image so thankfully, the moment didn’t leave her in a “horrible mood”.

However, she couldn’t help but wonder: “This is what I have to deal with?”

“I can’t imagine all of these young girls who are just looking at these magazines, and their perception is that this is reality and it’s not,” Wiley added.

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The Emmy Award winner recalled the memory while discussing her new partnership with One A Day’s Gratitude Project, which encourages people to show appreciation for their entire bodies and selves.

Wiley has teamed up with One A Day to co-produce the upcoming documentary short, The Gratitude Project, which features stories from real people who have used body gratitude to better themselves, inside and out.

The film is slated to premiere in June 2022 at Tribeca Film Festival.

Samira Wiley married writer Lauren Morelli in 2017. (Amanda Edwards/Getty)

It comes after Samira Wiley and her wife Lauren Morelli announced the arrival of their first daughter George Elizabeth in April 2021.

Wiley took to Instagram to share the happy news with the world, writing: “Happy 1st Mother’s Day to my beautiful wife, who four weeks ago today after labouring for almost three days gave birth to our first child — our gorgeous daughter, George.

“Welcome to the world, babygirl. We love you and we thank you for giving us the best 1st Mother’s Day two ladies could ask for.”