Helen Hunt opens up about rejecting Hollywood's beauty standards after years of 'misery and shame'

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After years in the spotlight, Helen Hunt has learned to let go of the beauty standards that often flood Hollywood. 

During an interview with The Flow Space, the 61-year-old actress opened up about the "misery and shame" she often felt about her physical appearance early in her career and explained how she chose to move beyond expectations. 

"It felt impossible not to internalize the way you're supposed to look," Hunt said. "And [there was] a certain amount of misery and shame around not looking exactly that way."

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Hunt added, "I realized, 'This could quietly ruin your whole life.' I made a decision: I'm not playing. Not gonna [let it] take up a lot of space in my mind."

Hunt said her approach has been influenced by "The Only Diet There Is," a book written by the spiritual leader Sondra Ray.

"What I took from it is, eat what you want and love every bite, period," she said. 

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Hunt isn't the only '90s heartthrob who has openly spoken about the struggles she faced as a young star. 

Earlier this year, Christina Applegate got candid about how the pressures of being portrayed as beautiful and sexy on "Married… with Children" led to an eating disorder.

"Playing that character kind of did things to me in my psyche that were no bueno - like anorexia," the 53-year-old explained on her "MeSsy" podcast while speaking to guest and former "Married… with Children" co-star Katey Sagal.

"Yeah, a pretty bad eating disorder started when I was doing that show that lasted for a really long time," she said. 

Applegate said she never told anyone about the disorder at the time and was "very, very private about it."

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"I would hide in bathrooms to eat, because I had so much shame around eating that I would hide on the airplanes, like when we went to London," she said. "I remember hiding in there to eat like one shrimp, 'cause I was so afraid if anyone saw me eat that they'd think I was going to try to get fat or something. I don't know. I was in such a dark space."

Sagal, who played Applegate's on-screen mother on the show, which ran from 1987 until 1997, told her that she "didn't know all that."

Applegate answered, "Yeah, I kept everything close to the chest. There's a lot of stuff that happened in the wings of my life that you guys didn't know about." 

Fox News Digital's Brie Stimson contributed to this post.