Before Maggie Q, 42, became a badass action heroine, she was a model in an industry that she now calls “so toxic and gross” and “would never recommend anybody” to get into.

In a recent interview with American news site Salon, Maggie, who started her modelling career in Japan as a teen, shared that the agency she was with would try to “shame” their girls into “never eating” or “having an eating disorder” by weighing them every Friday, and then writing that number down next to all the results of their previous weigh-ins on a whiteboard.

“It was like a wall of shame,” she said. “If you gained a pound, everyone knew it and could see it.”

While Maggie was considered the agency’s “model model” ‘cos she was apparently skinny enough for their standards, she clarified that she was “so slim” due to two reasons: “One, I was an athlete, and the second reason was I couldn’t afford food.”

According to the Hawaiian-born star, who is of Irish, Polish, and Vietnamese descent, she barely had enough money for three meals a day and would save up to buy fruit ‘cos she loved it so much.

However, all her agency cared about was that she maintained her weight. “They were like, ‘Look at Maggie. She’s so awesome ‘cos she’s always so skinny.’ And I’m like, “Don’t say that to people when I can’t afford food.’”

Maggie also opened up about her thoughts on the #MeToo movement, saying that she thinks “accountability is awesome” and “needs to happen”.

“I remember being in those dinners where the big guy walked into the room and everybody had to kiss his a** in a way that was just really demeaning and awful, and those people are now sitting in jail and it’s really awesome ‘cos the abuse was just so rampant and blatant,” she said.

Although she didn’t name names, it’s believed that she was talking about disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who was sentenced to 23 years in prison after being found guilty of third-degree rape and a first-degree criminal sexual act last year.

In Maggie’s action-packed latest film, The Protégé, she plays a contract killer who sets out to avenge the death of her mentor, played by Samuel L. Jackson.

Despite having undergone major back surgery not long before shooting was scheduled to begin and being advised by doctors to rest for five months, she jumped back into work just two months after the procedure and did almost all her own stunts.

“Everyone around me was terrified. Everyone around me didn’t want me to get hurt and wanted me to self-preserve,” she recalled. “And I think that I did find the balance. I think that I worked hard, but I think at the same time, I was able to internally go, ‘Maggie, listen to yourself and listen to your body.’”

Photos: The Protégé/Facebook, Maggie Q/Instagram