Actors Who Spoke About Wearing Corsets for Their Roles

Cara Delevingne’s corset worn while filming Amazon Prime Video’s “Carnival Row” made breathing and talking more difficult.

“I had to wear a corset every day, and you lose your voice,” the model said in a 2019 cover story for Net-a-Porter.

She continued: “I wonder, in the past, did men just sit round thinking, ‘What can we do? A muzzle? Is that a bit obvious? OK, we’ll just wrap something round their waists so they can’t breathe or speak.'”

Elle Fanning, who stars as Catherine in Hulu’s show “The Great,” said that wearing corsets changed her body.

“I’d be like, “My boobs aren’t big. What is this? What have they done? They look great, but wow,'” Fanning said during an interview with Variety.

She continued: “But they do change your body, those corsets. You’ve heard so many actresses talk about it, but your body does change, even your breathing pattern, especially saying those long speeches.”

Speaking to “Access,” the actress said that wearing the corset for six months “hurt” and she also had to “learn how to breathe differently.”

“I loved them and they’re beautiful, but I was happy to give them back,” Fanning said.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” star Rachel Brosnahan said that some of her ribs “are sort of fused together” from wearing the constricting garment on the show.

“We talk so fast on the show that just to get all the words out, you can’t really take very many breaths,” Brosnahan said during an appearance on CBS’ “The Late Late Show With James Corden” in January 2020. “I wasn’t breathing a lot and I was a little bit constrained.”

The actress said that she got a “corset-related injury,” referring to her ribs.

“I can’t take super deep breaths anymore,” Brosnahan added, brushing it off as a “champagne problem” compared to what other people experience.

The corset that Lily James wore for her princess role in Disney’s 2015 live-action remake of “Cinderella” prevented her from being able to properly eat between scenes.

“When [the corset] was on we would be on continuous days so we wouldn’t stop for lunch or a lovely tea like this — you’d be sort of eating on the move,” the actress told E! News.

She continued: “In that case, I couldn’t untie the corset. So if you ate food, it didn’t really digest properly and I’d be burping all afternoon in [Richard Madden]’s face, and it was just really sort of unpleasant. I’d have soup so that I could still eat but it wouldn’t get stuck.”

James also told Time that the corset for the iconic ball gown “was particularly tight.”

“On the one hand, it helps in the way you stand and the way you move, but on the other hand, it takes your breath right up into your chest,” she said. “When I was trying to dance, I didn’t have the capacity to breathe to support the physicality, and so I had to keep taking breaks and loosening the corset. But as I said, it was worth it.”

Dakota Fanning said she fainted during her first fitting for her role in TNT’s “The Alienist.”

“I would have hours-long fittings and I hate to try on clothes, and I would just stand there,” the actress told W magazine in 2018. “I fainted in my first fitting.”

Fanning explained that she was “sort of swollen and tired and jet-lagged,” when she headed straight to the fitting after getting off a plane.

“But then you get used to it,” she said. “Your body just completely adjusts, it’s so weird.”

The actress also told the publication that her body “completely changed,” especially after wearing the garment for seven months, but it also helped her get into character.

Emma Stone said that her “organs shifted” after wearing a corset for her Oscar-nominated role in 2018’s “The Favourite.”

During an appearance on “The Graham Norton Show” in 2018, Stone said that wearing the corset prevented her from being able to properly sit down, so she had to lean.

“Women existed in that for such a long time, which does give you a lot of sympathy for that time period and what they were going through,” she said. “For the first month, I couldn’t breathe.”

The actress also said that she’d sniff menthol to help her when she had breathing issues.

“After a month, all my organs shifted,” she said.

“It was only temporary, but was gross,” adding that her body has since returned to normal.

Saoirse Ronan wore a corset for 12 hours a day when filming “Mary Queen of Scots.”

“When you’ve been wearing them like we did for months, you take them off at the end of the job and your shape has changed,” Ronan said during an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” in 2018.

The actress said that she “didn’t have any curves before.” But when she took off the corset, she had an “hourglass” figure “for about a month” before her body went back to its normal form.

“It’s squashing your insides,” Ronan added.

“Stay in school, don’t do corsets,” she joked.

Natalie Dormer has had a fair share of roles that required her to wear a corset.

Dormer has worn the piece of clothing for roles on shows like “The Tudors” and other period dramas. It’s also the reason why she was hesitant to star in Amazon Prime Video’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock.”

“I wanted to be able to turn ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ down [at first] because I don’t need another corset to my name,” she told Interview magazine in 2018. “I’m trying to fight to get out of this pigeonhole.”

Dormer did sign on for the series, telling Radio Times that she “had no desire” to wear corsets again, but she was attracted to the script for “Picnic at Hanging Rock.”

“I think sometimes people forget that acting is a cardiovascular exercise,” she told the publication. “You don’t want to be anywhere near me when I take my corset off because it’s gonna honk.”

Keira Knightley said that wearing the garment was “positively awful.”

“They were made in very much the same way they were made back then,” Knightley said of the corset she wore for the 2008 period film “The Duchess,” according to NBC’s “Today” show.

“It’s not really a surprise we were known as the weaker sex, because you literally cannot get a breath,” she said. “So it’s sort of, as soon as you start getting emotional, if you’re doing an emotional scene, you can’t calm down. You can’t literally draw a breath to try and center yourself again.”

“It’s no wonder they were sort of fainting all over the place,” she added.

Knightley, who’s worn the garment for movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Anna Karenina” also told Variety that she acted as a “corset consultant” on the set of her 2018 movie “Colette.”

Margot Robbie said that her costume for “Mary Queen of Scots” was “very restrictive,” but also helped her performance.

“It was really helpful,” the Australian actress told CNN of wearing a full ensemble of prosthetics, makeup, a wig, and a heavy outfit. “Actually, the costumes too were very restrictive. You’re wearing a corset and layer after layer.”

Robbie continued: “It felt very restrictive and it was ironic and also helpful to feel trapped ultimately by the facade that she created for herself,” she added.

“You feel like you can’t breathe sometimes,” Robbie added during an interview with The Sun, adding that “the shortness of breath really helped” for scenes in which her character was frustrated with others in the film.

“Bridgerton” star Golda Rosheuvel said that she trains several times a week in order to be able to withstand the difficulties of wearing a double corset for her role as Queen Charlotte.

“I train three times a week, I eat healthily, [and] I drink lots of water because you have to have stamina to wear those costumes,” she said at a season two press conference, according to The Independent.

“Because I haven’t died yet – my insides are still intact,” she added. “But one has to be very careful.”

“Bridgerton” newcomer Simone Ashley said that she was in a “lot of pain” and tore her shoulder because of her corset.

Ashley, who joins the hit

Netflix

series on season two as Kate Sharma, told Glamour UK that she needed the wardrobe department to assist her because she couldn’t put her shoes on while wearing the corset.

Simone also said that on her first day she decided to eat a lot in order to “be really energized” and didn’t factor in the constructing garment.

“I had this massive portion of salmon and that’s when I needed to be sick, basically because I was wearing the corset,” she said. “I realized when you wear the corset, you just don’t eat. It changes your body. I had a smaller waist very momentarily. Then the minute you stop wearing it, you’re just back to how your body is.”

She added: “I had a lot of pain with the corset, too, I think I tore my shoulder at one point!”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post was originally published in May 2020.