Troian Bellisario, known for her role of Spencer on Pretty Little Liars, has taken a quite dramatic turn with her new film Feed on anorexia.
The film tells the story of Olivia, who finds herself affected by anorexia after her twin brother suddenly dies.
Bellisario wrote the script herself, as well as starred in it, and says she was determined to share the true story of eating disorders with the public. She told Collider,
“Oftentimes, people have a lot of false ideas about what it means to struggle with an eating disorder, and I really wanted to try to find a way to convey a narrative that would challenge people’s expectations of what they think of anorexia or an eating disorder, and what they think it looks like or feels like for the person going through it.”
She added,
“What I was trying to convey to a lot of people is that there’s a large portion of your eating disorder that’s a way of dealing with something deeper. It’s a coping mechanism, and you have coping mechanisms in your life because they work.”
The topic is deeply personal for Troian, who herself battled with anorexia nearly 10 years ago. She wrote in her recent Lenny Letter essay,
“It almost killed me, and you can see that even though I have lived in recovery for ten years now, it still finds loads of fun, insidious ways to thwart me to this day.”
She admitted that she still struggles with her health and is lucky enough to have the support of friends and family to help her survive.
Eating disorders seem to be a hot topic recently as Netflix recently released To the Bone, starring Lily Collins, who also faced her own struggle with anorexia. The film has received mixed reviews from both critics and fellow eating disorder survivors.
Feed is currently available to watch on iTunes. You can watch the trailer below.
