A recent Instagram post from Jennifer Love Hewitt made some social media users do a double take. And now, the actor has explained why people may have thought she looked "unrecognizable" in the image. At the same time, the 9-1-1 star opened up about aging in the public eye and why it makes her feel like she "can't do anything right."
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As reported by E! News, during an appearance on the podcastInside of You, Hewitt opened up about getting a reaction she didn't expect to a photo she posted of her new haircut.
"Aging in Hollywood is really hard. You can’t do anything right," the 44-year-old said. "I had this thing like a few weeks ago. I was getting my hair done, and I had not a stitch of makeup on, so I threw on a filter. I really gave it no thought." The actor added that she was surprised by the conversation stirred up by the selfie. "A bunch of people were like, ‘Jennifer Love Hewitt is unrecognizable.' 'She's unrecognizable, so she's gone to filters because she doesn't want us to know how bad she actually looks now in her 40s,'" she said. "This is crazy, right?"
@insideofyou_podcast Jennifer Love Hewitt talking about the Catch-22 of aging in Hollywood
Hewitt posted the since-deleted original photo of her haircut in late August with the caption "Ready for Fall." Soon after, she shared a series of heavily edited photos of herself on her Instagram story to poke fun at the reaction to the first filtered shot.
"So many people said I look different," she wrote alongside photos edited to make her look like completely different, cartoonish people, as reported by Allure. The Party of Five star joked, "I look the same as always. Couldn't look more natural. I woke up like this. Filters don't change you that much." She wrote in another post, "JK. But seriously let people be filtered or unfiltered. Be good. Be kind. Spread love."
Hewitt explained on Inside of You that she decided to play along with the trolls coming after her looks and post a "bunch of, like, over-the-top, crazy filters" on Instagram. She said she joked in the caption that she was all-natural in the photos as a way of "trying to make fun of it."
"And then they came after me for that," she continued. "They were like, ‘Well, now she's just defending herself and why is she defending?' I realized I can do no right." Podcast host Michael Rosenbaum asked why she cared what people online were saying in the first place. Hewitt replied, "To pretend that we don't is a lie."
Additionally, Hewitt posted a video in which she addressed one particular piece of speculation. "Hi. I don't usually do this, but I've had a lot of people lately say that I've had a brow-lifting procedure. I don't what that—I didn't even know you could lift your brows like that," she said. She explained that she'd only had her eyebrows microbladed and also noted that she was using a new brow product from Selena Gomez's brand Rare Beauty. "That is the brow lifting that people are talking about," she said. "That's all I got."
Hewitt previously talked about using filters in a March 2022 makeup-free Instagram post. "I posted this pic earlier and have heard lot of positive thoughts. It means so much to me because aging is weird," she wrote in the caption. "And growing up with you guys over 33 years has been amazing but the filters of it all can be tricky. You can’t help but want to look better or even perfect to keep up." She noted that filters are "fun," but "can be really hard because you can forget to feel good about your real face." She added, "Maybe I just need to be better at the balance" before thanking followers for "letting me share and feel good as just me today."
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