Celebrity is a common umbrella term where we include film actors, politicians, entrepreneurs, athletes, authors and many more. But today I’ll be sharing with you my favourite 10 vegan actors I know and has been an inspiration to me since the day I turned vegan.
1. Natalie Portman
Many of your might be knowing Portman for her evergreen portrayals in the films, V for Vendetta, No Strings Attached, Jackie, the Thor series, Black Swan and many more to come. But you might not know that she is a vegan for quite a long time. In her interviews, she mentioned that she was a vegetarian since 11 and turned vegan in 2011. She got highly inspired by the author Jonathan Safran Foer’s book “Eating Animals”. One of her famous quotes is, “Mothers are separated from children to create milk. Animals are sick and in crowded, prison-like conditions to make dairy and eggs. It doesn’t take a lot to draw the line from how we treat animals to how we treat humans”.
2. Billie Eilish
“Ocean eyes”, “bad guy”, “when the party’s over”, “bored” are the top hits delivered by Billie Eilish for the past few years. She went vegan when she was merely 12. Recently, one of her biggest achievements to turn the vegan world was to convince Oscar de le Renta’s CEO to stop using fur in their upcoming collection. She also collaborated with Nike, a popular sports shoes and sports gear maker to manufacture vegan kicks. She also launched her perfume brand named “Eilish” which is a vegan perfume and also made with natural products. One of her popular quote is, “I’ve been vegan for seven years. Once you know, it’s really hard to go back. I just can’t go on in my life knowing what’s going on in the animal world and not doing anything about it”.
3. Woody Harrelson
Along with many accolades like, Primetime Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Academy and Golden Globe nominations, he has been making huge transformation in the world of vegans. He mentored many new talents to stay either vegetarian or vegan like, Sadie Sink, Thandie Newton and Liam Hemsworth. Abbot’s Butcher and The Costa Mesa are the vegan brands where Woody is an investor. He once said, “Really, my message is simple. It’s a message of compassion. In this world that is spinning madly out of control, we have to realise that we’re all related. We have to try to live harmoniously”.
4. Joaquin Phoenix
He is known to play the unconventional and dark characters in Hollywood, but he is very much positive and lively in person. In 2019, Phoenix went to Toronto to show his support to a vegan campaign. At St. George subway station he extended his support for #BeFairBeVegan. He said, “Animal rights is part of my everyday life. When you live by example, you create a certain level of awareness”.
5. Liam Hemsworth
Many of you know Liam Hemsworth as the brother of Chris Hemsworth and one of the most popular “The Hunger Games” characters. While shooting for one of the Hunger Games movie, he fall sick pretty badly and asked for some quick suggestion from his fellow actor Woody Harrelson. As per his guidance, Liam started eating raw vegetables and instantly started gaining lot of energy and his health improved in no time. After his own health improvement, he encouraged his brother Chris to eat plant-based diet to gain muscles and the desired body shape for his “Thor” series films. Once he said, “After all the information I gathered about the mistreatment of animals, I couldn’t continue to eat meat. The more I was aware of, the harder and harder it was to do”.
Before turning vegan, I used to feel how do people live on plant-based diet. How do they get all the necessary nutrition if they aren’t eating meat, fish or eggs? Is its really sustainable? I tried digging into more. Gradually, I realised that, the lentils, Indian flat breads, rice, green vegetables I eat at home, they are completely plant-based and no animal-protein involved in it. I enjoy eating these food since I was a kid. Then I questioned myself that why is it difficult for me to turn vegan? And the answer was right in front of my eyes and didn’t take long for me to turn vegan.