Chloë Grace Moretz spoke bluntly to Hunter magazine about becoming a “recluse” after her body dysmorphia was exacerbated by “terrible” memes on social media, specifically a meme framing her body with a “Family Guy” character compared. The viral meme, which ridiculed the actor’s body, emerged after a photographer snapped a picture of Moretz walking into a hotel with a pizza box.
“Then came the onslaught of horrible memes that were sent all over my body,” Moretz said. “I’ve actually never really talked about it, but there was a meme that really touched me when I walked into a hotel with a pizza box in my hand. And that photo was manipulated into a character from ‘Family Guy’ with the long legs and short torso, and it was one of the most popular memes at the time.”
“Everyone was making fun of my body, and I approached someone about it and they were like, ‘Oh shut up, it’s funny,'” Moretz continued. “And I just remember sitting there thinking my body is being used as a joke and it’s something I can’t change about who I am and it’s being posted all over Instagram. It was as harmless as going to a hotel with leftovers. And to this day, when I see this meme, it’s something I have a hard time getting over.”
Moretz explained that she was “kind of sad” after the meme went viral because “it took a layer of something I used to enjoy, which is getting dressed and going on a rug and taking a picture, and made me super myself. deliberately. And I think that body dysmorphia – which we all deal with in this world – is extrapolated through the problems of social media. It’s a headfuck.”
Body dysmorphia is a mental illness in which a person is often plagued by anxiety due to perceived flaws in their physical appearance that are usually imperceptible to others.
“I basically became a recluse,” Moretz said of the effect social media memes had on her body. “It was great because I got away from the photographers and I could be myself and have so many experiences that people didn’t photograph, but at the same time being photographed scared me a lot. My heart rate would increase and I would hyperventilate.”
Moretz most recently starred in the Hulu original movie Mother/Android, and she will next be providing the voice for the Netflix animated movie Nimona.