Kat Dennings reveals a casting director called her 'fat' when she was just 12: 'Very harsh'

Kat Dennings has opened up about how she has coped with discouraging comments about her appearance within the entertainment industry.

The 38-year-old 2 Broke Girls star says she learned to brush off critics from a young age after experiencing a brutal incident with a casting director at just 12 years old. 

Speaking with People, the Shifting Gears actress recalled: "The time that I was auditioning and starting to act, it was a very different environment than it is now.

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"There was not a lot of inclusivity at all. It was very harsh. There was a lot of extremely negative feedback and people would not hold back," she told the publication. 

Dennings entered the world of showbiz at just nine years old, appearing in commercials before landing her first big break. 

The rising star was cast in her series debut at 14, portraying a wealthy New Yorker in an episode of Sex And The City. 

Dennings is best known for her role in the sitcom 2 Broke Girls and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

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The actress says that while she was growing up, casting directors could be "very cruel" despite "talking about a child."

"It was pretty crazy thinking about it. I'm like, 'How can anyone say that about a little kid? This is insane,'" Dennings shared. 

"For example, I was 12. I'd go into an audition, and I'd do it, and my manager would call me, and I'd be like, 'How'd it go?' And they'd be like, 'Well, they thought you weren't pretty enough and you're fat.' "

Thankfully, Dennings said, "It didn't break my spirit. " Instead, she used it as motivation to "show them" what she was made of. 

"I guess props to my parents, because they were like, 'They're idiots. Don't listen to them.' And I was like, 'They're idiots, I'm not.'"

Dennings says the entertainment industry is "much softer [and] kinder" today than it was when she first started, describing the business then as "completely insane." 

"There's body positivity, there's inclusivity, there's representation, and there was none of that before. It was really gross," she added.

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