Emily Ratajkowski is many things – a mother, a model, a best-selling author, an entrepreneur and the host of the High/Low with EmRata podcast. She also has been an actress and landed multiple high-profile roles until she stepped away from the profession. So what happened? Ratajkowski breaks down what caused her to quit.
The star recently sat down with The Los Angeles Times in an in-depth interview and explained that a big reason she quit acting is because she’s found herself less willing to put herself in positions where she is exposed to the “power dynamics and the power that is held by boys clubs.”
After starring in her breakout role in David Fincher’s Gone Girl, Ratajkowski and her team were committed to finding roles that proved she was “serious actress with longevity.” She acted in We Are Your Friends with Zac Efron, I Feel Pretty with Amy Schumer and Easy with Marc Maron to name a few.
But by early 2020, Ratajkowski no longer felt the need to make herself “digestible to powerful men.” She fired her acting agent, commercial rep and manager. Ratajkowski went on to say that she didn’t trust them. “I was like, ‘I can handle receiving phone calls. I’m gonna make these decisions. None of you have my best interest at heart. And you all hate women,” she said.
“I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’m an artist performing and this is my outlet,’” she explained. “I felt like a piece of meat who people were judging, saying, ‘Does she have anything else other than her [breasts]?”
The last audition Ratajkowski went for was the 2022 Academy Award-nominated film Triangle of Sadness. The role eventually went to Charlbi Dean Kriek, who unexpectedly passed away in August 2022 at the age of 32.
In her interview, the star noted the dark underbelly of the film industry that allowed for sexual predators such as Harvey Weinstein to thrive and continue their brutalization of women is ever-present. On March 29, sexual misconduct allegations were levied against Ratajkowski’s estranged husband, Uncut Gems producer Sebastian Bear-McClard. In statements obtained by Variety, three women have accused the filmmaker of “grooming” and nonconsensual sex.
Ratajkowski filed for divorce from Bear-McClard in the Manhattan Supreme Court, and the two are currently involved in a custody battle for their 2-year-old son Slyvester Apollo Bear. The producer is also in private mediation with the Safdie brothers, who fired Bear-McClard from their shared production company, Elara Pictures last summer.
