‘Pretty Little Liars’ Star Troian Bellisario on Cast’s GQ Pics: ‘Of Course It’s Photoshopped!’
“Pretty Little Liars” star Troian Bellisario lashes out at criticisms over the U.S. teen drama cast’s Photoshopped GQ magazine spread. The 28-year-old actress admitted that the photos were digitally manipulated, but it’s okay.
The stars of the show – Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Lucy Hale and Shay Mitchell – have posted the photos from their GQ spread on their Instagram accounts earlier the week, teasing their fans with previews of their upcoming feature from the magazine.
One blogger took exception to seeing the photos, saying that while the girls looked stunning in their photoshoot, they were overly Photoshopped.
“While I understand that GQ’s target demographic is probably, you know, not high school girls, it still makes me sad to see some of the smartest female characters on TV getting reduced to shiny, poreless Barbies,” Hayley Hoover of The Gloss wrote.
“I’m not not trying to say that talented, intelligent women can’t also want to look sexy in a magazine (and if someone offered to Photoshop me into a swimsuit model, I probably wouldn’t complain), but it’s so shi*** that the magazine version of ‘hot’ always means ‘barely human.’ They’re all gorgeous. They’re all sexy. Why do they have to be slimmed down, slicked up, open-mouthed, and fatless?”
Bellisario hit back at the criticism, posting selfies from their photoshoot to show their real bodies pre-Photoshop.
“So by now you have seen many a shot from #GQ and many people have said that we were photoshopped,” Bellisario wrote.
“OF COURSE WE WERE! that’s a very specific type of photo shoot. And looking very blown out and perfected was obviously what they were looking for. Great. Cool. As long as we acknowledge how it was achieved so we know it’s not real.”
She added, “This industry seems to invest more in perfection than in flaw. But flaw and individuality, to me, are what make a human being interesting, they make our stories worth telling. (Unfortunately the flaws don’t usually sell products or magazines) I’m proud of my body and the way it looks because @themarkwildman kicks my butt in aerial.
“But my hips and thighs are a part of me (even though they magically weren’t in some shots!) I get those things from my momma. And I’m happy To shake what my momma gave me.”
In a separate photo, she also wrote, “I mean. Photoshopped or not. I work with three of the most gorgeous women on the planet. (Goddesses without hair and make up as well) @shaym @itsashbenzo @lucyhale #gq”
In December, Benson has spoken up against the use of Photoshop on the show’s promotional poster.
“Saw this floating around... hope it’s not the poster. Our faces in this were from 4 years ago... and we all look ridiculous. Way too much photo shop. We all have flaws. No one looks like this. It’s not attractive,” she wrote on Instagram.