Celebrities have to put up with some real indignities at times, and not always just
getting Evian when they asked for Perrier.
It’s not uncommon to hear things like "you're too fat" from their producers, directors,
and agents.
Here are some instances when celebs were forced to lose weight for work.
"You eat like a baby dinosaur.
You don't even chew."
Amy Schumer
Comedienne Amy Schumer got the shock of a lifetime when movie executives behind her
debut film Trainwreck told her she had to lose weight.
She revealed on Live!
with Kelly and Michael that after the film got green-lit, Schumer met with execs to discuss
the film.
"It's so funny, because they want it to be your idea.
So they were like, 'how do you want to look for the movie?'
And I was like, 'Oh!
I don't know.
Like scarves and blazers?'
And they were like, 'No.
Maybe like skip a meal?'
And I was like, 'Oh…'"
They hired a celebrity trainer who put her on a strict diet and exercise regimen.
Schumer kept her spirits up and said she proudly lost three whole pounds!
She did, however, reveal Hollywood’s biggest diet secret.
"That's the Hollywood secret!
Don't put food in your dumb mouth.
That's it."
Carrie Fisher
Things are rough even for actresses in a galaxy far, far away, or at least that's what Carrie
Fisher says.
According to a 2015 cover story for Good Housekeeping, Fisher said the only way she was allowed to
reprise her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was if she dropped
an absurd amount of weight, saying,
“They don't want to hire all of me—only about three-quarters!
I'm in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance.
That is so messed up.
They might as well say get younger, because that's how easy it is."
Gigi Hadid
Victoria's Secret Angel and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Gigi Hadid was told to lose
weight early on in her modelling career, according to the Daily Mail.
Before working the runways, Hadid was focused on qualifying for the Junior Olympics in volleyball,
saying,
"I had like crazy muscles and I [ate] like a man...and it was crazy but at the time I
didn't care what my body looked like, I just wanted to be the best volleyball player I
could be so it didn't really matter to me."
Modelling agencies were not impressed, and she said she struggled to find representation
unless she lost "a lot of weight."
Eventually, Hadid found an agency that wasn't entirely clueless, and now she's one of the
most sought-after supermodels in the industry.
Nia Vardalos
Believe it or not, actress Nia Vardalos was pressured to lose weight to portray...herself.
Among the many changes studio execs wanted to make to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which
was based on her one-woman show, was the size of Vardalos herself.
Ultimately, she managed to retain creative control over her project, maintain her self
respect, and establish a healthy career on her own terms.
In 2009, Vardalos wrote a piece for CNN called "What's the big fat deal?", saying,
"Just 40 pounds of fat now gone from my body, but wow, it's pretty much all I get asked
about.
In the last year, I got to star in a movie, wrote and directed my next one, and adopted
a three year old from American Foster Care.
But guess what I'm asked…how did I lose the weight?"
Vardalos wasn’t the only actress told that she was too fat to play herself, however...
Margaret Cho
In the mid 1990s, comedian Margaret Cho starred in a sitcom called All-American Girl, which
was one of the first American network television shows to feature an all-Asian cast.
But despite the show's groundbreaking turn, it wasn't the best time for Cho.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the network required her to lose weight to play herself.
She did, dropping 30 pounds in two weeks — ultimately suffering kidney failure in the process.
"So from the age of 10 I was anorexic and bulimic and I almost died from it.
Until one day, I just said, 'What if this is it?
What if this is just what I look like?'"
In subsequent years, Cho fought back, not just for herself, but for other female celebrities
who face similar scrutiny.
In 2012, she lashed out at designer Karl Lagerfeld, who referred to singer Adele as "a little
bit fat."
Lagerfeld later apologized for his comment, but Cho suggested he "design a new line for
full-figured women instead of simply issuing an apology."
Instead, in 2013, Lagerfeld just went on to say, “No one wants to see round women on
the catwalk.”
Some weirdos never learn.
Judy Garland
During her legendary role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland was essentially
starved.
According to The Telegraph, Garland's troubles with her weight began at age 14 when MGM told
her she looked like a “fat little pig with pigtails".
Because studio contracts were once legitimately insane, execs reportedly assumed strict control
over her diet.
Their diet regime allegedly included simply taking food away from her, and instructions
to "consume only black coffee and chicken soup, plus 80 cigarettes a day and pills every
four hours to quell her appetite."
According to Garland, she wasn't the only actor subjected to this kind of treatment
at the time, describing a treatment straight out of science fiction, saying,
"They'd give us pep pills.
Then they'd take us to the studio hospital and knock us cold with sleeping pills.
After four hours they'd wake us up and give us the pep pills again."
Jennifer Lawrence
According to a 2013 interview with Harper's Bazaar UK, actress Jennifer Lawrence was once
told to lose a certain amount of weight or face being fired from an undisclosed film.
She recalled the incident, saying,
"They brought in pictures of me where I was basically naked, and told me to use them as
motivation for my diet."
The Oscar-winning Lawrence told the magazine she'll never allow herself to be pressured
like that again.
"If anybody even tries to whisper the word 'diet', I'm like, 'You can go f*** yourself."'
Jason Segel
While we often hear about actresses being pressured to lose weight for the cameras,
it happens to men too.
Appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman, Segal explained why he needed to lose 35 pounds
to star alongside Emily Blunt in The Five-Year Engagement.
"Well I was told that it had to be conceivable that Emily Blunt would ever choose me to be
her husband."
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