In the very first episode of HBO’s The Undoing, Matilda de Angelis’s character, Elena Alves, stands before Grace Fraser (Nicole Kidman) completely naked in a gym locker room and utters, “Do I unnerve you? You seem unnerved.” Unnerved is right: Her raw, unabashed vulnerability in the scene — her hair wet, her face (and everything else) bare — is striking even to the viewer.
On Tuesday, de Angelis showed her vulnerability doesn’t end when the cameras stop rolling by sharing a selfie revealing an inflamed acne breakout on Instagram. “Paradoxical things happen in life don’t they?” she wrote in the photo’s caption. “Well, for me, being an actress and working with a face eaten by acne is one of them.” De Angelis goes on to say that she recognises that there are bigger issues to focus on in life, but she hopes this post can serve as a way to “feel stronger, perhaps to accept myself better.”
This isn’t the first time de Angelis has opened up about her acne on social media: Last month, she posted a selfie with active acne and the translated caption, “Sometimes I’m bored. Sometimes I have anxiety.” Further back in her feed, the Italian actress and singer wears a face mask that she says is for her “many blackheads.”
The truth is that everyone has skin concerns, celebrity or not, and de Angelis is helping to normalise the struggles so many others share. There’s nothing unnerving about that.
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