Chloë Grace Moretz, who is set to star in the upcoming Prime Video sci-fi drama The Peripheral, has been opening up about her experiences with fame, including her thoughts on that infamous Family Guy meme.
In an interview with Hunger magazine, Moretz revealed that she became suddenly aware of her fame when she was 18. “It hit me like a ton of bricks,” she said. “I was 18 and doing a red carpet. I walked off of it, and I felt so much self-loathing and was really confused about the experience that just went down. I was really unwell after that.”
She went on to talk about her run-ins with the paparazzi, highlighting a particular photo taken of her, where she’s walking into a hotel carrying a pizza box. The photo went on to become a viral social media meme after people compared it to a character from Family Guy.
“I’ve actually never really talked about this, but there was one meme that really affected me, of me walking into a hotel with a pizza box in my hand,” Moretz explained. “And this photo got manipulated into a character from Family Guy with the long legs and the short torso, and it was one of the most widespread memes at the time.”
Moretz revealed that those around her played down the situation, but it made her “super self-conscious” about her body image. “Everyone was making fun of my body, and I brought it up with someone, and they were like, ‘Oh, shut the f*** up, it’s funny.’ And I just remember sitting there and thinking, my body is being used as a joke, and it’s something that I can’t change about who I am, and it is being posted all over Instagram.”
The Kick-Ass star revealed that the photo still haunts her all these years later. “It was something so benign as walking into a hotel with leftovers,” she said. “And to this day, when I see that meme, it’s something very hard for me to overcome.”
The Peripheral, Premieres, October 21, Prime Video