Ironically, an industry that stresses the importance of protecting actors sees nothing wrong with pushing actors to extreme diets at the altar of the arts
February 20, 2023 at 5:01 pm
What if you are pitch perfect Like me in the trilogy, you know Rebel Wilson's character, Fat Amy, carries the movie on his shoulders. As the embodiment of the good old comedy big girl who uses the word fat as her self-deprecating armor, Fat Amy does more than entertain stereotypes. She has a hobby of doing solo performances among groups of mostly slender women, as well as very physical stunts and choreography. For Wilson himself, however, there is a dark side to Amy's story.and call her daddy Podcast Recently, Wilson revealed to stay pitch perfectshe was contractually prohibited from losing or gaining “more than 10 pounds.”
In 2020, Wilson lost a lot of weight (nearly 80 pounds) for several reasons, including fertility and a desire to land a new role in Hollywood. “I thought about it for a while, and I wanted to get healthier,” she said on the podcast. “I stereotypically played the fat and funny friend, which was so hard because I loved those characters. But then I did want to do more, but I felt like a bigger girl, you were just more restrained gone.”
The Australian-born actress was not wrong.between pitch perfect, bridesmaid, how to be single and isn't it romantic, she is assigned to a specific role. In the latter, she was eventually considered good enough to play Liam Hemsworth's lover, but only because the film was set in an alternate reality. These characters, either mocking or poor representations of the obvious bigwigs, dovetailed with my experience as a fat guy.
Insofar as it exists, my body is a projection of a storyline I never chose.When I'm not a funny desexualized friend like Fat Amy, I'm an emotional eater trying to deal with past trauma (like Dittland or this is us). When people first meet me, I always wonder how long it takes them to decide if I'm a respectful fat guy trying to lose weight or a lazy couch potato. Whether I said a word or not, the script was written in terms of my being. Someone with a body like mine will never be seen as a blank canvas for filmmakers and writers.
If entering show business as a fat guy wasn't challenging enough, it's even worse for someone who gained weight in the public eye. Just ask Selena Gomez, who felt she had to go live on TikTok last week to explain her recent weight gain (due to her lupus medication). Or singer Sam Smith, who receives constant hate online, including horrific fat-phobic attacks and before-and-after photo montages. Both committed inexcusable behavior and were no longer like the selves they first became famous for. When Hollywood and the music world first embraced them, they brought a complete package: talent and traditionally beautiful and expressive cisgender bodies. By not maintaining those same images, they challenge the status quo and unattainable yet desirable beauty standards that the public looks up to and expects celebrities to maintain.
I'm even more appalled that this issue has led some actors to still go on extreme diets at work.Most recently, Oscar-nominated actor Austin Butler said he gained weight in some scenes Elvis PresleyTo reach his body goals, he says we'll “take two dozen donuts and eat them all.”He also told the Variety's Awards Circuit podcast: “I heard Ryan Gosling, when he was going to cute bones, microwaved Haagen Dazs and would drink it. So I started doing this. Even actress Marisa Abela, who already looks thinner, said losing weight was part of her “training” to play Amy Winehouse in an upcoming biopic. “a part of Back to black. Coach George Ashwell, who has been working closely with her, told the Before The Lights podcast: “Obviously the reason Amy is skinny isn't because of health. But that doesn't mean you can't achieve that if you don't stay fit.”
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In other words, it seemed “healthy” for Abela's employers to pay the entire team to make her look dangerously thin. Will they do the same to actors who play fat characters? They won't. Award-worthy fat characters are rare, but when they do exist, they're sometimes seen with skinny actors in fat suits.Brendan Fraser may be due later this year whalewhile Emma Thompson has recently been the fat villain (another fat-related trope) The musical Matilda. The characters and their corpulent bodies were important in both scripts, but not good enough to be filmed on set.
Ironically, an industry that emphasizes the importance of protecting actors (especially since Me Too) sees nothing wrong with the extreme diet that drives actors to the altar of the arts. Intimacy coordinators are now supposedly part of a plethora of productions to help performers feel safer, actors can choose to have less sex (if at all), and even CGI-generate kissing scenes, but asking actors to lose, maintain, or gain weight is still been accepted. In this regard, Hollywood workers, even celebrities, don't seem to have any sovereignty over their bodies.
No one, whether Hollywood executives or audiences, should feel entitled to bully anyone who presents themselves the way they want. Rebel Wilson and Selena Gomez don't owe us anything. their bodies. their choice.
