Zoey Deutch says being bullied at school helped her navigate Hollywood.
The US actress, 24, who stars in Netflix show The Politician, launched her screen career aged 15.
She told Net-A-Porter’s digital title Porter: “I had a terrible time in middle school. Just the worst.
the sets! the cinematography! the costumes! the ~aesthetic~! The Politician! pic.twitter.com/twcCOpn9gn
— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) October 3, 2019
“There were a lot of coughed insults when I walked down the halls, and there was some pushing and shoving, but mostly it was just people talking behind my back.
“Now I’m in a profession where everyone talks behind your back. But I rarely pay attention to it and I never do it to others. It’s none of my business what other people think about me and I meditate on that mantra.”
TIRED: Miranda Priestly demanding the unpublished Harry Potter manuscript
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— Netflix US (@netflix) October 2, 2019
The Zombieland: Double Tap actress said of bumping into less-than-kind school peers now: “We just pretend not to see each other. But they know.”
Deutch grew up in Hollywood to famous parents, Back To The Future star Lea Thompson and Pretty In Pink director Howard Deutch.
She said they “valued a great sense of humour over a lot of other things that young girls are taught to value”, adding: “The compliments were not, ‘You’re pretty’, but ‘You made me laugh’. The positive reinforcement shaped me.”
Deutch wanted to act from a young age but said: “I saw the negative part, too, that it could be all-consuming. It doesn’t end at five or six or even midnight. It just ends when it ends. Which is never.”
Porter is at www.net-a-porter.com/porter.