Plus-size actresses finally get to take on leading roles
Long relegated to providing comic relief or playing supporting parts, plus-size actresses are finally getting their due with juicy front-and-centre roles in a sign of shifting attitudes towards diverse body types.
New Hulu series Shrill, which debuted in the US on Friday and is adapted from the best-selling autobiography of Lindy West, is the latest example of studios willing to depart from the tried-and-tested formula of slender leading ladies.
To be sure, curvy actresses, such as the Oscar-winning Octavia Spencer and Mo’Nique, or hip-hop icon Queen Latifah, blazed an early trail starting more than decade back with a string of starring film and TV roles.
In more recent years, Chrissy Metz has received attention for This is Us, Danielle Macdonald starred in the Netflix movie Dumplin’, while in cinema, Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect) and Melissa McCarthy (Spy and Ghostbusters) have made themselves regular fixtures.
“I think the American public, and probably the public in general, is not used to seeing fat women on TV,” Aidy Bryant, the star of Shrill who has been a regular on late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live, recently told Elle magazine.
A professor at the University of Connecticut where she is deputy director of the Rudd Centre for Food Policy and Obesity, Rebecca Puhl, said: “I do think we are starting to see somewhat of a shift”.
Heavier actresses are also taking on new types of roles.
James Zervios, of the Obesity Action Coalition, which fights against weight bias, said: “In the past, people with obesity were often cast in more of a comedic role than a serious one.
“As of very recently, we have begun to see people with obesity, such as Chrissy Metz, cast in more dramatic roles.”
But, he said, the progress was more marked for women than for men, who struggled to find leading roles outside of comedic performance. – AFP