Mumbai: Lisa Ray has said she does not like being boxed into a certain identity and this is why being known as a sex symbol at the age of 16 still haunts her and she used to hate the tag.
The actor, who released her memoir ‘Close to the Bone’, recently is hoping people will understand her better after reading about her journey.
“I hate to be labelled and put into boxes but I had to deal with it since a young age because I was a sex symbol at the age of 16. It was completely unanticipated,” Lisa told reporters.
“To suddenly become this figure for an entire nation and on top of that, to look much older, it has haunted me my entire life up until now,” she added.
The model-actor, who overcame multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells, said the book should not be read just as a cancer memoir because it gives a glimpse into her journey right from the beginning of her fame.
The Indo-Candian actor, 47, said while at the peak of her career, she was grappling through a personal tragedy as her mother had met with an accident, leaving her wheelchair-bound.
“I understood at a very young age – I was 16 then – that all the aspects that you call success – name, fame and money – they don’t solve the questions of the soul,” Lisa informed.
“So, my ambitions became different. My goal wasn’t to become famous. That explains a lot of my choices, all the projects I said no to because I really understood that my answers were not waiting at the end of it,” added the actor.
Lisa, who featured in films like ‘Water’ and ‘Kasoor’, said a part of her would have been ‘extinguished’ by ‘conforming to mainstream standards.
The actor said ‘Close to the Bone’, published by Harper Collins, may have begun as a starting point to talk about her disease but it gave her a chance to talk about her life.
“I do cover my cancer experiences but that come much later. Having said that, cancer was the launching pad for writing this memoir because initially that’s why I was approached to write this,” informed Lisa.
PTI