“Her energy was bright and interesting and undeniable,” according to Merkin. In the business, you sometimes run across large, famous stars and instantly grasp what it is that draws people to them. Brittany had the trait.
However, the young actress’s journey was privately plagued by uneasiness. She gave herself a drastic makeover, bleaching.
Her hair blond and drastically losing weight from her little 5-foot-2-inch frame after producers and agents offered her harsh criticism on how she looked.
Actress Melanie Lynskey, Murphy’s companion, spoke candidly about body-shaming and the extreme pressure to be slender in Hollywood, despite Murphy’s denial of anorexia accusations.
Lynskey remembered, “I was always heartbroken by [Brittany’s] self-perception.” “The things she believed she needed to alter in order to succeed as an actress.”
Following Murphy’s death, Monjack recruited publicist Roger Neal, who echoed Lynskey’s critique of Hollywood’s unrealistic and sexist beauty standards.
