Casey Powell is a teenage girl who is secretly suffering from anorexia nervosa, a mental and physical illness of deliberately starving herself or self-inducing vomiting, because of her inability to cope with family stress and because of social pressures.
Acting
Jennifer Jason Leigh at 19 — terrifyingly committed physical performance.
Writing
Steven Bochco's script doesn't flinch from the psychological mechanics.
Direction
Sam O'Steen's TV-movie urgency makes it feel dangerously immediate.
Director
Sam O'Steen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Leigh reportedly lived on 300 calories a day during filming; the studio later intervened.
This ABC afterschool special prestige project helped legitimize eating disorders as medical rather than vanity issues — though critics argue it also inadvertently created a 'how-to' for vulnerable viewers.
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