THURSDAY FEBRUARY 15, 2007 08:00 AM EST
By Stephen M. Silverman
Liv Tyler says she spent
years worrying about her weight – until she
became a mom.
"I've been a model and actress since I was 14,
so I've been on a diet my whole life," the
actress, 29, says in the March issue of
Glamour.
"But once I gave birth, I didn't want to think
about myself or feel insecure about my career; I
wanted to think about my child. So I stopped
worrying about diets."
Still, the mom of 2-year-old Milo (with husband
Royston Langdon, 34) says she recently lost 10
pounds without even trying while filming the
thriller The Strangers in South
Carolina.
"I've been eating like a pig. I think it's
because I hired this chef on the set of
Strangers to cook for me, and I ate a lot
of vegetables and protein. Filming was also
incredibly intense: We were supposed to be out
of breath in every scene, so I would run around
the stage to achieve that. I just went to Marc
Jacobs and I bought a red dress in a size 4.
I've never been a size 4 in my entire life!"
She also weighs in on the debate over super-thin
actresses and models. "I definitely think the
girls look too skinny now," she says. "I'm
friends with Helena Christensen and Linda
Evangelista, and I remember Linda telling me
that when she was a model [in the '90s], a
sample size was a 6 or an 8. Now a sample dress
size is a 0 or a 2. That's pretty alarming.
There's a lot of pressure on [the models]. It's
not healthy. I can't even imagine what
that's like."
Tyler says she's more interested in being
herself – and to that end, she took a two-year
hiatus from film work so she could devote time
to being a mom, and experience she describes as
"transformational."
"Is that a word?"
she asks with a laugh, then adds, "Getting
pregnant and caring for a baby gave me a
confidence I'd never had before. I really felt
I'd done something well, and I can't say that
about anything else in my life."