7 acclaimed actresses from historical productions who love their work but HATE corsets

Films and serials about history are often revered for their meticulous costume creations from various time periods long gone by.

While a peculiar feature of many period costumes for women is the incorporation of corsets — a binding piece of undergarment which is used to enhance the shapely figures of its wearers.

Though corsets are still around and worn by many around the world, the practice of doing so is often looked at as unnecessary at best and regressive at worst.

Having worked their fair share of time strutting around in corsets, the following actresses have gone on record to express their true feelings about handling them:

Keira Knightley

A period specialist, Keira Knightley has appeared in several productions based around previous centuries, like Pride & Prejudice, Anna Karenina, The Duchess, among others, and revealed that a corset can be “positively awful”.

“You can’t literally draw a breath to try and centre yourself again. It’s no wonder they were sort of fainting all over the place,” she shared on The Today Show.

Emma Stone

Two time Oscar winner, Emma Stone greatly pleased audience and critics alike with her delightfully villainous turn in 2018’s The Favourite, but had a shocking story to tell about her time sporting corsets on the set of the acclaimed period film.

“For the first month, I couldn’t breathe, and I would smell menthol and it would make me think I was in a wide-open space and could breathe for a moment in time. After a month, all my organs shifted — it was gross, and if you don’t have to, don’t do it!” she said on The Graham Norton Show.

Elle Fanning

When Elle Fanning stepped into the shoes of the Russian queen, Catherine the Great, for the historical dramedy series The Great, she found corsets to be “beautiful” but admitted that they “hurt”.

“You’ve heard so many actresses talk about it, but your body does change, even your breathing pattern, especially saying those long speeches,” she told Access Hollywood.

Dakota Fanning

Elder sister to Elle and her fellow actress, Dakota Fanning revealed that she fainted when she had to fit into multiple corsets for the 2018 drama series, The Alienist.

“You had to wear these elaborate costumes to keep up this facade of what women were supposed to be – you couldn’t even take them off on your own at the end of the day,” she explained in an interview with Digital Spy.

Lily James

Lily James stunned cinemagoers with her magnificent turn as Cinderella in the 2015 film named after the character, with her bouncy blue coloured ball gown in the film particularly drawing most of their attention.

However, fitted underneath the gown was a corset which made her waist almost disappear, while she told Time, “On the one hand, it helps in the way you stand and the way you move, but on the other hand, it takes your breath right up into your chest” — an ordeal which left her constantly “taking breaks and loosening the corset”.

Natalie Dormer

Another actress known for her lauded performances in many period dramas like Game of Thrones, Tudors, and more, thought corsets to be a “pigeonhole” for herself.

Though she “had no desire” to don a corset again, she did so to appear in Amazon Prime Video’s Picnic at Hanging Rock in 2018, which forced her to shoot under the heat of Melbourne and prompted her to claim, “You have to sweat it out and hydrate. Don’t be anywhere near me when I take my corset off.”

Margot Robbie

Margot Robbie’s time in corsets came when she took on the role of Queen Elizabeth I in the 2018 film Mary Queen of Scots, which co-starred Saoirse Ronan as the titular monarch and Elizabeth’s sister.

Although Margot “felt very restrictive” in her corseted costumes, she also admitted that they were “really helpful” for her performance and added in a conversation with The Sun, “You feel like you can’t breathe sometimes.”