Not so when Bosworth was growing up. She admits without prodding that high school wasn’t a particularly easy time for her. “My parents were amazing and wonderful, but there was a lot of pressure to do my best and in every way possible,” she says. “I grew up in a small town where everyone wanted to be the same or look the same and was afraid to be different.” On the set of The Horse Whisperer, however, “there wasn’t that fear. That was very freeing for me as a 15-year-old-girl. The people interacted in such a close-knit, caring way.” After finishing the movie, Bosworth, with typical self-effacement, ruled out school plays. “I just felt like I’d probably get crucified, setting myself up to be criticized on a huge scale.” Instead, “I played sports. I wasn’t very good, actually.”
Being in Australia, on her own and “out of my comfort zone,” she says, helped her to overcome some of those insecurities. “I learned a lot about myself,” she says. “I learned being perfect is complete bulls---. You’re going to fail; you’re going to succeed. You’ve got to just live your life and keep doing what you want to do. If you get too caught up, you’re really going to f--- yourself.”
The production also took place while her friends were graduating from college, something that made her particularly reflective. “It’s interesting to think I could have gone one way or another,” she says. “But I’ve done so much in that same period.” When she visited Princeton after being accepted, she stayed with a student who was studying nuclear physics. “I thought, Oh, my God, what am I doing here? I felt so intimidated. Thinking back on it, I’m kind of glad I didn’t go because [Princeton] was too similar to the way I’d grown up my entire life.”
Bosworth recently took another step toward growing up: She bought a house in Los Angeles. At the time of our meeting, her best friend from high school, Ary, was about to move in with her and begin a job at PMK/HBH, the public relations firm that represents Bosworth. “When you’re away for so long, there’s something about wanting to really nurture things at home,” Bosworth says. “I’ve been feeling really domestic lately.” While some of her friends are about to marry, Bosworth, who stays mum about her relationship with Bloom, isn’t sure she’s ready. “It’s certainly on the horizon, but I’m not engaged, let’s put it that way,” she says. “I do know that I’m happily in a relationship, and there’s nobody else I want to be with. We’re both equally supportive of one another, which I think in any relationship makes things easier and seem less daunting.”
