Julia Stiles struggled with "disordered" eating at the height of her Hollywood career

During an appearance on the 'How to Fail with Elizabeth Day' podcast, she explained: "I'm not talking about an eating disorder - it was just restrictive, regimented, stressful.

"I always worried that it was going to be out of my control. Like, what if I gain weight? I couldn't help but have a disordered relationship with it all ...

"There was stress around what your body looks like and trying to mold your body into a certain size. As an actress, we go and promote on a red carpet, and we have to wear sample sizes from fashion designers. So it's always: 'Are we going to fit into the sample size?"'

However, Julia has revealed becoming a mother to three children - Strummer, Arlo and Henry - with her husband Preston Cook helped her understand that obsessing over her weight was a "waste of f****** time".

She added: "I've moved on. I've learned to be kinder in the way I think about my body and look at my body - to be kinder to myself but also trust your body ...

"I would be running on fumes, like, no sleep having just had a five-month-old baby. I didn't have time to think about, am I going to get back in shape to fit into those sample sizes?"

During the interview, Julia also praised her 'Mona Lisa Smile' co-star Julia Roberts with helping the young women in the cast treat themselves with more kindness.

She explained: "She was an amazing example for us, and she was so maternal with all the young women on that set. She was coming from a lot of experience of being not just a woman, but also a woman where your appearance is focused on so heavily.

"[She] said to us: 'You're going to look back on these photos of you in your 20s and be like, I was beautiful - why didn't I see that?'

"And she's totally right."