‘Looking at your body in a mirror seven hours a day is not healthy’: Alicia Vikander says she feels ‘lucky’ she never developed an eating disorder when she trained in ballet as a child
Alicia Vikander has admitted she feels ‘very lucky’ she never developed an eating disorder when she trained in ballet during her younger years.
In a new interview, the screen star, 31, who mastered the performance dance from the tender age of nine, reflected on the pressures of the art form as she insisted: ‘Looking at your body in a mirror seven hours a day is not healthy.’
The Swedish thespian credited her stage actress mother Maria for helping her to navigate the demands she faced while growing up as a ballerina.
‘Looking at yourself seven hours a day is not healthy’: Alicia Vikander has admitted she feels ‘lucky’ she never developed an eating disorder when she trained in ballet (pictured in 2019)
In October’s edition of ELLE magazine, Alicia said: ‘Being in a leotard looking at your body in a mirror seven hours a day, six days a week and having people talk about your body in front of you and in front of other girls and boys, growing up with that is not healthy.
‘I was very lucky to go through ballet school without having an eating disorder. I don’t know how, I think it was my mum who talked about it to me every day.’
The Tomb Raider star trained in ballet at the Svenska Balettskolan i Göteborg (Swedish National Ballet School) in Gothenburg from 1998 until 2004.
Candid: In a new interview, the screen star, 31, who mastered the performance dance from the tender age of nine (pictured as a teen in 2003), reflected on the pressures of the art form
‘She talked to me about it every day’: The thespian credited her mother Maria for helping her to navigate the demands she faced while growing up as a ballerina (pictured in 2019)
At 15, the skilled star relocated from the country’s second-largest city to train at the its upper school in Stockholm, where she lived alone in a small flat.
The media personality previously detailed her time at the educational facility in an interview with the Telegraph.
The actress told the publication back in 2015: ‘They have a boarding school now but they didn’t have back then.
Impressive background: The Tomb Raider star trained in ballet at Swedish National Ballet School in Gothenburg from 1998 until 2004 (pictured in January)
‘I lived in a tiny flat. It was like half a room with a tiny kitchenette. I even had a minibar because it didn’t have a fridge. It was in an old house, beautiful, with wooden floors, but it was basically a big closet.
‘Now when I see 15-year-olds I think, ”how did I do it?” But it was worse for my mum. I felt horrible leaving her.’
The Anna Karenina star was also instructed at the American Academy of Ballet in New York for one summer.
Romance life: The actress has been married to film star and racing driver Michael Fassbender since 2017 (pictured in 2016)