9 Hollywood Actresses Who Were Told They Weren't 'Pretty Enough' To Make It In Hollywood

Meghan Markle has had a successful career as an actress, philanthropist, humanitarian and entrepreneur, and recently announced her engagement to Prince Harry - but that doesn't mean the star hasn't battled against crippling self-doubt.

Speaking about the constant knock-backs she had to deal with while trying to establish her own identity and succeed as an actress , the Suits star wrote for Darling magazine:  'I was in my early 20s, still figuring so much out, and trying to find my value in an industry that judges you on everything that you're not versus everything that you are. 

'Not thin enough, not pretty enough, not ethnic enough, while also being too thin, too ethnic, too pretty the very next day.'

But it all changed when a casting director finally stopped Markle mid-sentence to say what she had long been waiting to hear after so much rejection: 'You need to know that you're enough.'

Oscar-winning star Viola Davis gave a powerful and affecting response to The New York Times after a journalist suggested she was 'less classically beautiful' than her Hollywood contemporaries. 

The star hit back to say she would no longer let such a derogatory remark denounce or 'erase' her, as she may have done when she was younger. 

'I think that beauty is subjective,' the star pointed out on The View.

'I've heard that statement my entire life. Being a dark-skinned black woman - you hear it from the time you get out of the womb. Classically not beautiful is a fancy term of saying ugly, and denouncing you, erasing you. 

'Now it worked when I was younger; it no longer works for me now. Classically not beautiful is a fancy term of saying ugly, and denouncing you, erasing you. 

'Now it worked when I was younger; it no longer works for me now. ... Because really at the end of the day, you define you.'

Selena Gomez was instilling confidence into her army of young fans when she admitted she's constantly told that she's not sexy enough, or that she needs to change in order to be accepted.

But she affirmed that the sexiest thing anyone can have is 'class' during one of her concerts, adding: 'I have to tell you, I get it all day, every day... That I'm not sexy enough, or I'm not cool enough, or if I did this I would be accepted. 

'Let me tell you one thing: the sexiest thing ... is class. I promise you that each and every one of you is made to be who you are. That is what's so attractive and beautiful. Please don't forget that, even when it gets hard.'

The Oscar-winning Big Little Lies star runs her own production company to support more women trying to break it in an industry dominated by men. 

Speaking about her experience of rejection when she was first trying out in Hollywood, the actress told You magazine: 'You have to be focused and tough because it takes a tenacious personality to deal with rejection.

'When I first came here (to LA), all I heard was, 'No, not right – not tall enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough'. 

'But I didn't really care about their opinions. I'm stubborn.' 

The actress may be a two-time Oscar nominee, with her latest role as Molly Bloom in Molly's Game already generating another Academy Award prediction, but Jessica Chastain has revealed she's often had her worth reduced to her physical appearance. 

'Trust me, it's only been in the past five years that people have been telling me I'm attractive,' the star told The Telegraph.

'Before then, I wasn't getting parts because people kept telling me I wasn't pretty enough.'

Mindy Kaling writes, directs and stars in her own hit sitcom The Mindy Project, which is no mean feat for an Indian-American woman in Hollywood. 

But the star recently disclosed that she endured a 'humiliating' experience when a network offered her a sketch show, but made her audition, and then rejected her for the role of herself. 

This was down to their reckoning that she was not considered 'attractive or funny enough' to play herself. 

'That network is no longer on the air, and The Office went on to be one of NBC's most hit shows in years. I feel like karmically, I was vindicated, but at the time it felt terrible,' she added to The Guardian.

Streep might be the most Oscar-nominated star of all time, but the actress has had to push back against those who tried to derail her ambition by telling her she wasn't attractive enough to make it. 

The star recalled a mortifying audition when she was 26-years-old after she had been asked by the son of legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis to try out for the part in his father's remake of King Kong.

Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, Streep recalled: 'I walked in and his son was sitting there, and he was very excited that he brought in this new actress.

'And the father said to his son in Italian – because I understand Italian – he said, 'Que bruta? Why do you bring me this ugly thing?' 

'It was sobering as a young girl.'

But 18 Academy Awards later and a 2018 Golden Globe nomination just announced, we think Streep might be doing just fine. 

The Oscar-winning actress has often spoken out about being body confident and refusing to succumb to the pressures of Hollywood to become a size zero. 

And Winslet used her acceptance speech for her third BAFTA win last year to stick it to those who said she was too big to land decent roles in the industry.

'When I was younger, when I was 14, I was told by a drama teacher that I might do OK if I was happy to settle for the fat girl parts,' the star said. 

'So what I always feel in these moments is that any young woman who has ever been put down by a teacher, by a friend, by even a parent, just don't listen to any of it, because that's what I did – I kept on going and I overcame my fears and got over my insecurities.'