Rebel Wilson, the Australian actress known for her roles in films such as Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect, has revealed that she deliberately gained weight early in her career in an effort to stand out and become successful in the entertainment industry.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Wilson discussed her experience with weight gain and its impact on her acting career.
Wilson explained that she noticed that women who were overweight were often perceived as funnier and decided to use this to her advantage by gaining weight herself.
She cited an experience in her first play where she was cast alongside a woman who was larger than her and received more laughs, despite Wilson feeling that there was not much difference in talent between the two.
This led Wilson to consider that the other woman’s size might have been a factor in her ability to generate more laughs.
Wilson then made the conscious decision to gain weight in order to capitalize on this perception.
“I was like: ‘Oh. That girl’s getting a lot of laughs, a lot easier than me. What is it?’ Because I don’t think there’s much difference in talent… And I remember distinctly thinking, ‘I think it’s because she’s fatter.’ And then, I don’t know if it was mega-conscious, but I thought, ‘How can I get more laughs? Maybe if I was a bit fatter…’ And then suddenly I was fatter, and doing comedy.”
She said something similar to Australian publication, Daily Life. “I took something that was seen as a disadvantage – no one thinks, if you’re fat, that you’re going to be an actress and everyone’s going to love you – and turned it into a positive. And bigger girls do better in comedy… “I don’t know why. Maybe because people find it easier to laugh. It’s very hard to laugh at someone who’s very attractive, I think. And normally those people don’t have a great personality anyway.”
Despite this strategy, Wilson emphasized that she is naturally athletic and has strong arms, and that her weight tends to return to its normal level when she takes a break from acting.
She mentioned that she has received criticism for her weight loss, with some people urging her not to lose weight.
In addition to the role that her weight has played in her acting career, Wilson also credited her ability to ad lib and embellish scripts as a factor in her success in Hollywood.
She stated that this skill is essential for a career in comedy, and that those who lack it may not last long in the industry.
Wilson has had a busy year, starring in the film How to Be Single and appearing in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie. She will also reprise her role as “Fat Amy” in Pitch Perfect 3 in 2017.
Wilson’s comments reveal the complex and often controversial role that body size can play in the entertainment industry, as well as the various strategies that actors may employ in order to succeed.
Wilson’s decision to gain weight in order to be perceived as funnier highlights the societal biases that can shape the way that people are judged and evaluated, and the ways in which actors may seek to challenge or utilize these biases in their careers.
