Cinderella’s Lily James’ Waist is a Natural, Says Director Kenneth Branagh

7:34 AM EDT 3/8/2015 by Kara Michelle, Celebeat Reporter

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Cinderella director Kenneth Branagh addresses the issue about Lily James' tiny waist. Lily James plays the titular role of our beloved character, Cinderella.

From a report by US weekly, the Downton Abbey star James, 25, wears the classic dreamy blue Cinderella dress, and appears so slight that fans raised concern that either the image was photoshopped or the actress had shrunk too small for the role.

"The simple truth is, we didn't alter anything," Branagh, 54, said on HuffPost Live. "In fact, it partly seems a little bit more extreme because it's shadowed... the lit part feels very narrow, and it's a bit wider on the top."

"It's not a mystery -- if you put someone in a corset, you'll see also that there's a wide [part]," the British filmmaker added. "Not that Lily James isn't slim. But, in that wide bow of the dress underneath, basically you squeeze things in, things come out at the bottom. It all gets hidden under there. The natural body physics of it aren't insane."

While Branagh attributed James' tiny shape to a trick of the eye, the actress herself revealed earlier this week that she went on a liquid diet to fit into her Cinderella costume.

James told US weekly that the controversy was unfair. She says that it's a fairy tale and it's the dress - the dress that does it more than anything. James added that she has a "naturally" small waist and she is a "naturally" small person.

Branagh added that James is slim but is healthy and he would defend his film more than anything else.

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