Minnie Driver says a condescending word from a producer ‘devastated’ her morale

In her new memoir, Managing Expectations, Minnie Driver discusses a negative criticism she received when auditioning for her role in Good Will Hunting that lowered her self-esteem.

Driver told The Cut that she was just 26 years old when she was told by a movie producer that she was not attractive enough to “play Matt Damon’s on-screen lover.”

“It was devastating,” the 52-year-old stated.

She went on to add that to be told at such young age that you are “not pretty enough when you maybe just got over all your teenage angst”, and began to think good about your look was very demoralising.

I certainly had insecurities growing up. That I was not gorgeous. I was not super pretty,” she told the magazine.

However, the actress divulged that it was her family who stopped her from trying to “find ways of making myself prettier”.

It is pertinent to mention that this was the same performance that earned Driver an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

Meanwhile, the Circle of Friends star also stated the annoyance she felt “when a producer distilled an actor down to what they perceive as their sexiness, it’s so dismissive of that person”.

Adding to this, Driver noted that this has not changed yet as people still commented on looks of how she’s “too old” or “too tall”.

“I have always thought about how things get distilled. There’s this notion of one part of you being the thing that will block all these other aspects of who you are and that’s a huge disappointment as a performer,” she concluded.