Christina Hendricks has never taken her beauty very seriously, said Hadley Freeman in the London Guardian. Even in her early 20s, when she was working as a model to pay the bills, she saw the job as a stepping stone. “I met a lot of young girls modeling and they were like, ‘Oh, I’m running around town and people are taking my picture,’ while I was saving receipts and learning how to be self-employed,” says the Mad Men actress. When she was sent an invitation to Johnny Depp’s birthday party, she sold it to pay for groceries. “I was astounded I was invited because I didn’t know him.” Told that the organizers wanted pretty girls there, she reasoned, “‘Well, that doesn’t seem appropriate!’ So I sold it.”
This grounded approach to life proved useful when her modeling agency told her to lose weight. “I thought, well, you might see curves there, but that’s just bone”—she punches her hip as proof—“so even if I lose weight, that’s not going to change anything.” She refused to diet, and now, at 36, she’s celebrated for her figure—not that the attention impresses her much. “It’s very nice, but my husband always says, ‘I told you that years ago!’”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Will SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic make 2026 the year of mega tech listings?In Depth SpaceX float may come as soon as this year, and would be the largest IPO in history
-
Reforming the House of LordsThe Explainer Keir Starmer’s government regards reform of the House of Lords as ‘long overdue and essential’
-
Sudoku: February 2026Puzzles The daily medium sudoku puzzle from The Week
