The series “Grey's Anatomy” has allowed many actors and actresses to be put forward in front of the general public. Before slipping into the shoes of April Kepner, Sarah Drew already had a substantial career, thanks to the role of Hannah Rogers in “Everwood”. But his participation in the medical series allowed him to gain new fame, international this time.
Difficult beginnings before the era of social networks
When she started playing in “Everwood” in the early 2000s, Sarah Drew explains that Twitter or Instagram did not yet exist. “There were no social networks at the time, but I was addicted to forums, I would read messages about me on these pages,” she says in the “Broad Ideas” podcast.
“It's the worst thing ever. It was so bad for me. Because of my character, I ended up playing the ugly best friend. I had glasses and frizzy hair and not a single point makeup, I was the ugly duckling of the series,” she recalls candidly.
Sarah Drew says it: some comments were, fortunately, very positive. “There were a lot of people who appreciated my performance and complimented me,” she recalls. But the criticism was no less difficult to take.
Reviews that are impossible to forget
The actress affirms: the words that marked her the most were the insults and mockery. “I remember some negative comments to myself,” she explains with emotion, citing one of the messages that really hurt her: “Sarah Drew is so ugly that she cracks my television every time I 'she appears on the screen.' “It hurt me so much to read that,” she explains.
Especially since before becoming an actress, Sarah Drew had never really asked herself the question of whether she was beautiful. “I grew up not thinking about whether I was pretty or not. It just wasn't something we talked about. My mother is a scientist and, as it happens, she never wore makeup. Hair, no one nobody cared about it, nobody cared about fashion.”
Also, “absorbing all these negative comments” was “very destructive” for the young woman she was. “I was reading so many nasty things about how ugly I was. Suddenly I thought, 'Am I an ugly person? I guess maybe I'm an ugly person.”” An experience that impacts her today in her choice of roles, since she refuses to play characters that could harm young women's self-esteem who look at her.
