Recently, I came across a roundup of celebrities who ‘celebrate their curves’. I’m all for a fun list and a little push-back on the typical narrative we see. But then I scrolled through and had to laugh. Among them— Anne Hathaway, P!nk, Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, Jennifer Lopez.
I get that people of all body sizes can have low self esteem and body image issues. Especially in the pressure cooker of the entertainment industry, the label ‘fat’ is meant to be an insult, a moral failure. But Hollywood fat and real life fat are different. I mean, they called Jessica Simpson fat, or any other celeb mom who doesn’t ‘bounce back’ immediately after birthing a human.
It’s great that some celebs speak up about our cruel fatphobic media and society. But these public figures have certain privileges living in smaller bodies. It’s one thing to say, tabloids are cruel to me because I gained weight. It’s another to say, there’s nothing wrong with being fat. Or supporting people who are.
What’s the last movie or TV show you saw that had a fat lead (who wasn’t on a diet or being made fun of for their weight)? Out of all the streaming services, what percentage of them truly celebrate body diversity?
With all of the entertainment I consume, and this silly [redacted magazine]’s article, I thought about some suggestions for a revised list of fat actors who are gems.
As I researched, I was hesitant to search “fat actors” but I did. The results were upsetting. America Ferrera was considered fat, as was Mindy Kaling, January Jones, Kate Upton, and Renee Zellweger (but only briefly when she gained weight for her Bridget Jones role, then awfully wore a fat suit for The Thing About Pam).
Disappointing, too, are the fat actors I once admired for pursuing their dreams regardless of their size, but have since underwent weight loss surgery (Rosie O’ Donnell, Roseanne Barr, Gabourey Sidibe to name a few), or followed an extremely rigid diet (John Goodman, Jack Black, Melissa McCarthy, Kevin Smith), or endorsed diet companies (Octavia Spencer with Sensa, Jennifer Hudson with Jenny Craig).
I definitely get the nuanced dilemma of casting calls and societal pressures; maybe there aren’t many roles to choose from; maybe it’s easier to cut to the punchline first so it hurts less. Maybe they believe losing weight is the solution to their problems. It’s complicated. It gives me pause about what my criteria is for this list— is it only people over a certain weight? Who’ve never succumbed to diet culture? Who’ve had the luck to never take a role that deprecates their body? Who’ve never hated how they look? I fear there wouldn’t be anyone.
A much more thorough look at the racism of anti-fat bias is explored in this NPR conversation between Maddie Sofia and Sabrina Strings. Notably, too, there are not many fat Asian actors; Haley Kim writes more about their invisibility here.
That said, in no particular order, here are 10 fabulous fat actors.
Note: the word ‘fat’ is used as a neutral descriptor.
Queen Latifah. I first met Kadijah James in the 90s sitcom Living Single, though I wasn’t black, nor living single, nor old enough to understand much about the show. Still, Latifah’s confidence, grace, and beauty captivated me enough that I scream-sung along to her song “U.N.I.T.Y.” and followed her decades-long career as an actress, rapper, and just a cool person. She’s been known to turn down roles that require her to lose weight.
Chrissy Metz. The scene in Season 1 of NBC’s This Is Us that shows Metz’s character Kate opening her fridge to show Tupperware containers plastered with sticky notes, and the ensuing guilt and shame of struggling with binge eating disorder is maybe the first time I’d seen it portrayed on a prime time spot, especially with the thoughtful complexity it deserves. Kate’s storyline does involve weight loss support groups, but also shows her as a fully drawn character, in love and friendships and motherhood. She says, "We’re taught that if you are a size two, you’re beautiful. But just because you’re a size two doesn’t mean you are beautiful, or that you’re healthy: mentally, emotionally or physically."
Barbie Ferreira. Likely the only fat Barbie we’ll ever see (as it looks like this summer’s Barbie movie will stay in line with body standards), Ferreira’s best known for her role as (the fat friend) Kat in HBO’s Euphoria, opposite the stellar Zendaya. Ferreira says, "People don’t ask thin people: ‘How do you have the confidence to go outside? How do you have the confidence to wear clothes?’ I have been called brave just for existing my whole life."
Natasha Rothwell. Oh my god, Rothwell is so funny in Issa Rae’s HBO show Insecure. I was happy to see her on White Lotus as the massage therapist who Jennifer Coolidge’s character breadcrumbs about investing in her business. In a Glamour interview, Rothwell, a fellow Libra, says, "I'm a plus-size, fat-loving, body-positive feminist, and I look for roles that celebrate that."
Aidy Bryant. Though she got famous on Saturday Night Live, I didn’t come to watch Bryant’s work until Hulu’s Shrill, based on Lindy West’s book of the same name. Bryant’s been outspoken about how she’s treated in the industry, especially when she received backlash about her support of the film I Feel Pretty. "Through my short time in this industry I have been sent all kinds of demeaning scripts where my body is the punchline. I choose my projects carefully with exactly these things in mind."
Danielle Brooks. Miss Dani B is so talented that I put up with the strangeness (and violence) of Orange is the New Black just to see her. When I was living in New York, she was in the Broadway production of The Color Purple, which unfortunately for me (but fab for her) was sold out for each of her shows. While she struggles through weight-gain shame, she did defend Lizzo’s choice about fat girls eating whatever the hell they want.
Ashlie Atkinson. In my interview last year with writer and activist Aubrey Gordon, she mentioned some fat folks she loves, including the incredible Atkinson. Prior to her work in the latest Sex and the City and Mr. Robot, she played Helen opposite Jeremy Piven in the play Fat Pig. Of the role, she says, "To have the bigger girl not be the best friend dispensing love advice, to have her there falling in love and being real, and getting her heart broken, is something that I’d never anticipated getting to do."
Jorge Garcia. Okay, so I never got on the Lost bandwagon, and likely I never will. But I did notice Garcia as part of a cast of actors in a huge hit show. Come to find out he’s Chilean too. Like other countries, Chile is heavily influenced by the narrow ideals set in the USA, so to have a fat Latin actor become successful gives me a bit of hope. (Pedro “Daddy” Pascal is Chilean too, but fits more into the traditional scope of hotness and I wonder if that plays a part in what Garcia’s been offered. Is it easy to visualize Garcia in the same roles as Pascal, to swap them out? Is it uncomfortable to think of Garcia as a leading hero, lusted after in space and post-apocalyptic worlds?)
Eric Stonestreet. Best known for his role as Cameron Tucker in the sitcom Modern Family, Stonestreet fought to keep fat jokes out of the script. In a Vox interview, he speaks more at length, but it’s nice to see he was able to set limits. I recall when he dated Charlize Theron, people were up in arms that someone “like her” would be with a guy “like that” which to me just sounds like fatphobia. (Notwithstanding the privileges of him being a straight actor playing a gay man, or the double standard and skewed power of fat cis male actors versus fat cis female actors.)
Kathy Bates. I remember watching Bates in 1991’s Fried Green Tomatoes as a kid, before I had much of an opinion about body shapes. I liked her approachability and powerhouse performances (most recently a small role in Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret). She’s managed to maintain a career that does not revolve around her body size. As I was researching this, I did find articles about her recent weight loss, though she didn’t diet — she attributed it to mindfulness. Bates says, "I don't like the word willpower, but I like the word determination." I don’t think I like that word either though. It’s worth mentioning that fat liberationists do not endorse intentional weight loss. Is the media at fault for asking a pubic figure about a physical change in appearance, one which likely the general public will ask about and speculate? Is it fair that people are still talking about others’ bodies? Is Bates at fault for answering honestly, or is she simply a product of our heavily-saturated diet culture? Perhaps picking this bone isn’t worth it, as she doesn’t seem to be parroting out cliche diet tips, but rather mental health practices like meditation.
Honorable Mention—These are ‘straight-sized’ (aka thin aka smaller body) folks but included here for speaking out against diet culture and body shaming.
Emma Thompson. I love Thompson so much— her quiet grief in Love Actually? Her awkward sexuality in Leo Grande? Ugh, she’s fabulous. And, okay, this might be another tricky one, because as I was researching this, she both eschews dieting, but also seems to be on some sort of anti-diet diet of controlled calories but limitless meals…? In an interview (which I won’t link because it’s very confusingly coupled with prescriptive diet tips), she went on to say, “Dieting screwed up my metabolism, and it messed with my head. I’ve fought with that multimillion-pound industry all my life, but I wish I’d had more knowledge before I started swallowing their crap. I regret ever going on one.”
Jameela Jamil. Best known for her role as the name-dropping, out-of-touch Tahani on the show The Good Place, this British Indian actress is routinely calling out diet culture in the media. She speaks from her own experience with eating disorders and living in various body sizes. With her iWeigh campaign, Jamil places the emphasis away from the scale and onto all the other incredible assets people have. She says, "I am not going to stop until we teach people to be better allies to women and stop selling this not at all medically sound s—t and rhetoric to us."
Melanie Lynskey. Some might debate that she is not straight-sized— and really the idea of categorizing one versus the other is complicated. But New Zealander Lynskey has spoken about getting body shamed as far back as her part in Coyote Ugly, and as recently as Yellowjackets. "I was losing my mind trying to conform to something that was not physically possible for me," she says. "I was very unwell for a long time. I had eating issues and at a certain point I was like, I'm not going to survive."
Jennifer Lawrence. The Hunger Games star claims to eat whatever she wants and refuses to diet. When asked to lose weight for the film, she says, "I don't know if I want all of the girls who are going to dress up as Katniss to feel like they can't because they're not a certain weight. We have the ability to control this image that young girls are going to be seeing." Though it might all be a PR campaign for likeability (“How refreshing, an actress who eats pizza!") not everyone has the confidence or power to set this boundary and it might embolden others to follow suit.
Lili Reinhart. To be honest, I hadn’t known who she was until she spoke out against a certain shapewear founder’s extreme diet to fit into an iconic dress for the Met Ball. And then randomly (err um algorithmically) I saw a movie come up on Netflix called Look Both Ways, a kind of remake of Gwyneth “Goop” Paltrow’s Sliding Doors, all about the paths we don’t and do take. It was cute (though I still clocked the amount of thin white able bodies in the movie; it does better than most). She says, "I speak up because I don’t see enough people with large platforms calling out toxic behavior in our industry." I’m a fan of anyone standing up for body inclusivity, especially when it’s easier to sit back and say nothing.
Prompt: Think back to your childhood. What bodies did you see (or not see) portrayed in real life or media? How did it impact your body image and sense of self?
Thanks for reading Such a Pretty Face!
Christina Berke is a Los Angeles based writer working on a memoir, WELL, BODY, about eating disorders, body image, and childhood trauma. Find out more at www.christinaberke.com.