Tracy Spiridakos has revealed that an unnamed modelling agency photographed her in a bikini, circled areas of her body on Polaroids and told her to lose weight when she was 17. The Chicago P.D. actress shared the account on the 11 August episode of I've Never Said This Before with Tommy DiDario, explaining that she had won a modelling contest and believed it could lead to work in Milan.
Now 38, Spiridakos said the comments did not end when the meeting did, as she still notices the same areas in the mirror roughly two decades later. The former Revolution star called the assessment a 'gut punch', explaining that she was young, excited about modelling and unprepared to have parts of her body singled out.
A Contest Win Turned Into a Body Critique
Spiridakos arrived at the agency with one of her older brothers, expecting the meeting to open a professional door. Representatives gave her a bikini, asked her to change and took a set of Polaroid pictures. The images were placed in front of her as a representative used a Sharpie to mark the areas staff considered problems.
The actress recalled being told, 'You have to lose weight here, here and here.' She said she felt deflated, but her brother challenged the agency over inviting her after she had won its contest.
Representatives replied that she was 'pretty for guy-meets-girl kind of pretty' but would need to slim down to succeed, according to Spiridakos, who did not name the agency and said she no longer remembered its name.
Her brother decided they were leaving and ended the modelling plan after the exchange.
Spiridakos remembered walking out with her head lowered before he put an arm around her and tried to comfort her. They went for burgers, and he told her he would inform their mother that she was finished with modelling.
The Sharpie Circles Stayed With Her
The meeting was brief, but Spiridakos said its effect on her body image lasted for years. She sometimes still sees the marked areas as flaws, although she now recognises that the label was not real. She linked the criticism's staying power to being 17 and highly impressionable when the agency presented its judgement as a professional requirement.
Spiridakos said she now interrupts that memory by reminding herself to practise self-love and care less about other people's assessments. Her message was framed as a warning against allowing others to dictate how someone should exist in their body. The disclosure focused on the enduring effect of appearance-based criticism, not only the modelling opportunity she lost.
Acting Offered a Different Route
Within about one or two years, Spiridakos secured her first television role in a 2007 episode of Supernatural. She later appeared in The L Word, Psych and Bates Motel before leading the post-apocalyptic drama Revolution. Spiridakos joined Chicago P.D. as Detective Hailey Upton in 2017, ended her regular run in 2024 and returned for a One Chicago crossover in March 2026.
Spiridakos now leads Anna Pigeon, a crime drama based on Nevada Barr's novels that premiered on 7 August. Her official Instagram account has promoted the series, in which she plays a National Park Service law enforcement ranger investigating crimes in national parks. The interview arrived days after the premiere and during her first leading television role since her seven-year run on Chicago P.D.
Spiridakos did not say the modelling encounter directly caused her move into acting, and the agency's identity remains unconfirmed. She recounted it after DiDario asked her to share something she had never said publicly. Her closing message centred on rejecting the labels placed on her at 17 and refusing to let other people dictate how she lives in her body.
