Let's Stop Focusing on Her Body

How much do you know about The Other Woman star Kate Upton that doesn't involve her boobs? Not a lot. And so far, during Upton's press tour for the film — which also stars Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann, and hits theaters April 25 — the majority of the questions aimed at the model-turned-actress have been about her body. Earlier this week, Upton was asked what kind of body she'd rather have — to which she answered that she'd want Diaz's famous figure, disappointing a lot of people that view her as an icon for fuller-figured women. (Well, fuller-figured than most models.) And on Friday morning, the model-turned-actress was asked again about her body in relation to her new film — specifically, how Upton felt filming that now-famous bikini scene? Heck, even Photoshop conversation surrounding the film's poster can't stray away from Upton's body. We get that she's famous for her incredible physique, but why don't we care about Upton herself?

Upton, Diaz, and Mann sat down with Alan Carr on his talk show Chatty Man Friday morning where — of course — the topic of conversation turned to her Other Woman bikini scene. The scene in question features Upton running on the beach in a teeny bikini — so you can probably imagine why it's become the stand-out scene from the film thus far. Because the fact that this film is Upton's first top-billing role doesn't mean as much as a scene of the Sports Illustrated model in a bikini, right? Upton told Carr about the experience:

I was shooting that bikini scene and I was feeling a little uncomfortable because, even though I'm very proud my body and I love my body, a bunch of people were staring at me. Sixty people are staring at me and you're like, alright, go back to your phones let me just do my job.

Thankfully, she had Diaz and Mann around to divert the attention — when her costars saw how visibly uncomfortable Upton was, they ran over to her and performed the scene with her. It's actually a great anecdote about female friendship, but, still, here we are focusing on Upton's body and how she feels about displaying it to the world. And not about the fact that she's making an impressive transition from being a supermodel to a possibly legitimate Hollywood actress.

Wouldn't it be more interesting and productive than rehashing the fact that she has a famous body to know what she learned from working with Diaz and Mann? Or how she intends on departing from other model-turned-actresses who didn't quite measure up? (Ahem, Brooklyn Decker and Tyra Banks.) Or maybe how she felt about holding her own amongst already-established actresses in her first top-billing role? Considering she had such a great experience with Mann and Diaz on set, I could think of at least five better questions to ask the impressively successful 21-year-old than how she felt running around in a bikini.

As much as we know about Kate Upton's body, we hardly know about her. How many times can we expect her to answer that same question? Let's move past it the gawking! We want to know more about Upton, and she deserves to show off her brains over her body, especially now that she's developing a career as an actress. So let's treat her like one.