Claire Danes Rails on Body Shaming in Hollywood, Encourages Everyone to Own It

Updated on 11/18/2015 at 8:30 PM

Claire Danes graces the cover of Allure's December issue, and she's digging into Hollywood beauty standards with her brazen new interview. Like so many celebrities who have spoken out about fat-shaming recently, Claire discusses body-image issues, and why it's powerful "to be big, to take up space, to breathe, and to thrive." Claire also shares the story of meeting President Obama, how she feels about her infamous cry face on Homeland, and what she thinks it means to be brave. Read on for her insightful quotes.

On meeting President Obama: "He said, ‘Claire, you’re a fine actress.’ And I said — just like a total idiot — ‘You’re a fine president.’ And he said, ‘You’re a finer actress than I am president."
On body shaming: "It’s just so ingrained in us, the idea that we should take up the right amount of space, literally and figuratively. I've wrestled with this my whole life, as just a person in the world and as somebody who make images. It's OK to want to look and feel your best. It's OK to work at being attractive, whatever that means to you. And it's also OK to not expect to be defined by that. It's OK to be powerful in every way: to be big, to take up space. To breathe and to thrive.”
On being described as fearless: "Oh, I'm full of fear. I care about things; therefore, I have fears. I like to think that I'm brave, which is different. Brave means you’re able to admit that you care. If you care, you are vulnerable."
On her infamous cry face: "I'm very vain about my performance. I want to give as honest a performance as I can. But I'm not so worried about being regarded as beautiful when I'm playing a character. I have plenty of vanity in my life. I want to look pretty in the world. But I can be this bottomless pit. I know some of the most beautiful women on the planet — unequivocally, objectively friggin' gorgeous — and they are rife with insecurity and self doubt, and you just think, 'Well, how can that be?' I'm attractive enough. I can do the work I want to do. I’ve found a wonderful man who wants to make out with me. I'm good.”

On her plans for the future: "I’d love to do a comedy. I’d love to play somebody who is much more terrestrial and low-key and of this planet that most of us know and love. I would like to maybe not save the world for a second."
Her red carpet policy: "It's either eyes or lips. It's like legs or boobs: You shouldn’t do both. That’s always the first question when you sit down to get ready for the night."
On her high school style: "I wore a lot of overalls as a teenager. I still love an overall."
On a beauty practice she won't let her husband see: "I’m afraid my husband has seen it all. We just pretend we haven’t."
On working with Jared Leto: "That was when he was genius, when I really understood that. He was very fraternal with me . . . quite protective. He took me to my first club in LA, and I was totally overwhelmed, drinking my sparkling water. It was cute."