I do think Rebel Wilson is funny, but she’s funny-within-parameters. She’s at her best when she’s stealing scenes within an ensemble, but I’m not sure if she has the ability to carry her own projects, whether those projects are films or television. But Rebel has come back to one of her most celebrated projects to date: Pitch Perfect! Pitch Perfect 2 has a May release this year and I’m really looking forward to it. So I guess this might be early promotion for that film, or maybe she just had time to sit for a profile/interview with an Aussie outlet. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
She jokes about her weight: “One time I got X-rayed by a chiropractor and he goes, ‘You know, you don’t actually have a big build.’ It’s like, you’re just fat!”
Making it in Hollywood: “The odds of an Australian girl making it in Hollywood is, like, one in 25 million. I’m lucky. But I also think I worked hard. I deserve it.”
Her real age? For the record, Wilson’s biography on movie website IMDb puts her age at 28, but a quick look through the Fairfax archives suggests that she’s actually 34.
Her failed ABC sitcom, Super Fun Night: “That one network commissioned 100 pilots. Of those, 11 were made; of those, three were put on air. It was a triumph to even get on.” It was also a lesson. “I was the lead in the show, so I had to be the straighter character. People are used to seeing me as the curvy line, rather than the straight line, in comedy terms. It was a bit odd: I wasn’t Fat Amy.”
Bigger girls do better in comedy? “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.”
What if she lost weight? “I do have these dreams, like, ‘What if I just went to a health farm and lost 50 kilos? What would happen? Would it affect my career?’ But then I think, that’s never going to happen.”
Her hero is Oprah Winfrey: “I love Oprah. She’s like the one person I have not met who I really want to meet.”
I think it’s great that she’s so positive and ambitious, and I think that’s one of the big reasons for her success in Hollywood. There’s a take-me-as-I-am attitude combined with I’m-awesome and it works for her. But I disagree with the idea that people find it difficult to laugh at someone thin or pretty – her logic there is weird. She did learn the right lesson from her failed ABC show though – the biggest problem was that she was trying to be funny as the straight woman/lead, when Rebel’s whole shtick is that she’s amazing in ensembles, when she has people to play off of.
Also: what’s with the discrepancy in her age? IMDB does have her at 28 years old, but she’s really 34?!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
It’s the only way they are ‘accepted’. Because fat people aren’t. I know.
You’re right. I’ve been heavy and thin, and people treat you completely differently. Completely.
So true. When I’ve lost lot of weight caused by a food allergy people started treating me like I’ve suddenly become a better person. I was gobsmacked.
They do. I gained weight from fertility drugs and stress eating, and I was invisible. When I lost the weight, I was suddenly “interesting” again. Both men and women acted like I was a better person worth talking to. I wanted to say “I’m the same person I was 40 pounds ago. F off. “
That just proved me that people base your worth on what you really look like and what your weight is. I remember telling more that one person to f— off because the fact I wasn’t eating didn’t make me a better person but a grumpier and crankier one.
I 100% believe it. The stigma overweight people face is atrocious, even worse if you’re a female.
That being said I have an issue with this:
“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.”
Not only is that completely untrue (Tina Fey, Julia Louis Dreyfuss, and countless other women dispel this notion), but she’s reinforcing an unfair stereotype here.
Yes, Kitten, that was a crazy statement. I think it maybe reflects her jealousy or bitterness at how she has been treated. To be honest, I never completely believe overweight women who say they are at total peace with their weight and don’t care what everyone else thinks. How can you be, when it affects every interaction you have with other people every day of your life? It must bother you on some level, even if it’s just a tiny bit, and I think it leaks out in little remarks like that one, implying that very attractive people only care about looks and are shallow and uninteresting.
I’ve been heavy and thin as well, and know I carried myself differently, too. I was insecure when heavy and surely that was reflected to others when I looked uncomfortable and that I wanted to disappear into the background. When I’m thin, I felt more confident and comfortable, and was slightly more outgoing, probably prompting others to perceive me as more likeable and willing to talk.
It can be subconscious, but there can be other variables besides a simple “big me” and “little me” in play.
She has a beautiful face and I’m not fat shaming her but she would look smashing if she lost a bit of weight. She doesn’t have to be a skinny girl but she would look great in high fashion gowns if she was the size of..let’s say Queen Latifah? She seems such a positive, full of life person.
I love her.
Yeah, she has a really pretty face. Face-wise she is attractive, more so than some ladies who have thin physiques, but since society favours thin women I guess the prettiness of her face might be overlooked.
What is she talking about? Joan Rivers, Wanda Sykes, Ellen DeGeneres, Tina Fey, Kristin Wiig, Amy Poelher, Sarah Silverman etc etc.
Of course theres room for Dawn French, and Roseanne Barr but arent the vast majority of famous, even iconic comedians a healthy weight? She uses her weight as a punchline thats why she thinks its some kind of success prerequisite. M’onique lost the weight and I bet she is still hilarious now that she has probably retired the “skinny bitches” joke.
exactly! There are so many funny (thin) ladies out there. No need to say it helps to be bigger, because in the end, what helps is just to be funny – to be able to make fun of yourself first, and then reflect that outwards 🙂
I think she was talking more about extremely attractive people, rather than just thin. Come on, we all know some really good looking people who have the personality Of a wet dish rag. Let’s be honest– super attractive people don’t have to try as hard to get people to like them, so they don’t always develop a striking sense of humor or personality. Of course, that’s not always the case.
I would say 75% percent of the “beautiful” people I know are really boring.
its quite disgusting this two part society in hollywood. ugly men and big women are allowed the “lowly” comedy while handsome men and thin women are allowed to do the dramas. “we will laugh at your faults, but expect people to celebrate us for looking conventionally attractive!”
You mean unattractive/big women get the shaft as unattractive men get plenty of juicy dramas: Forrest Whitaker, Phillip Seymour Hoffman (RIP), Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Steve Buscemi, William H Macey, Nicholas Cage….
Women are hit with this ugly double standard, not men.
Whoa there, Maria. I got to go to bat for William Macy. 😉
And the late PS Hoffman was cuddlesome as well as a great actor, RIP
Steve Buscemi is so ugly, he’s cute. Plus, he’s kinda beloved. Like a pug or something lol
I think that people are treated according to body type.
I am less concerned with size and more concerned with activity and diet.
It really bothers me that she continually references herself as “fat.” It sounds like negative self-talk trying to present itself as simple truth.
How big is she, anyway? People in Hollywood are so much skinnier and shorter and different than people think. She probably doesn’t look fat IRL.
I think some people think that comediennes are insecure in some ways, so they use their comedy as a defense mechanism, kind of make fun of themselves before you get a chance to make fun of them. And even with the thin comediennes they are not beautiful in the conventional sense so the same would apply.
Are there any comediands that are 10/10 in the looks deoartment?
Will Smith is pretty hot and so is Seth Mcfarlene actually 🙂 or you wanted females?
I think Tina and Amy are gorgeous 🙂
Did Will Simth start as a comedian? And Seth is not attractive to me.
I do think Tina and Amy are gorgeous, but they are not Angelina Jolie level gorgeous and they look much better now then they did when they started.
This is an interesting question. Are there any comedians that are incredibly beautiful? For an example, Cate Blanchett is both incredibly beautiful and an incredible actress. I can’t presonally think of anyone like that in comedy,
Sandra Bullock, Tina Fey, krysten Ritter, Sarah Silverman, Allison Brie. Kristen Wiig can be quite a looker if she wants to.
Charlie, Tina is gorgeous. She’s a petite version of Angie Harmon.
I think some like Kristen Wiig tend to downplay their looks a bit when they’re doing comedy. It’s only when Wiig left SNL that I noticed that she’s actually quite pretty.
Aisha Tyler. Period.
I love love LOVE Tina Fey. I wish she and I were best friends. That said, she cleaned herself up a lot once she got famous. Not Nicole Kidman level, but she lost weight and did some major grooming. The Tina Fey we see now has been Hollywood-ified.
I saw Tina and Amy on Oprah once, and I noticed they were self-deprecating about their looks. I can’t remember if they outright said it, but at the very least they seemed to strongly imply they were not as good looking as other women in Hollywood. I don’t think they’re unattractive, but maybe comediennes don’t really see themselves as good-looking and, so, they develop other parts of their personality?
Will started as a rapper but he is also funny he did the Fresh Prince sitcom in the nineties, but I don’t think he can do stand up.
I love Rebel Wilson and think she is stunning. I kind of wish she would be in the Ghostbusters reboot. I was bummed when Super Fun Night was cancelled.
I agree she is much better in ensembles, I hope she continues to get good roles.
I can’t even get into the double standards and other issues, too depressing.
Because they’re the punchline, whether it’s explicit or implied. And I’m not down with her saying that attractive people don’t have a personality. That just sounds bitter.
Booooo that she wasn’t picked for Ghostbusters 🙂
Am I the only person who is annoyed by her?
I think what she says about it being easier to laugh at someone who isn’t traditionally attractive has some truth in it in the sense that I think a lot of female comedians downplay their looks to be taken seriously. Whenever I’ve seen Tina Fey speak about herself she’s much more self-deprecating than someone who is a Victoria Secret’s model, even though at 40 something she has the kind of frame that Hollywood expects. And then there’s someone like Sarah Silverman who is quite pretty, but dresses incredibly bad whenever I’ve seen her on talk shows. I wonder if Rebel Wilson was referring to highly conventional looking glamorous celebrities (i.e magazine ready like Miranda Kerr) rather than celebrities who would be considered attractive but not defined by it, though. Like, Sandra Bullock is very pretty, but she’s not defined by her beauty the way Kate Upton is. I saw Kate Upton on a talk show once, and she was pleasantly cracking jokes, but no one in the audience seemed to be laughing (and it wasn’t like her jokes were anything much different from what another celebrity X might have said, but if another celebrity had said them, I think that celebrity probably would have gotten a laugh at what she was saying). I’ve noticed the same with Olivia Munn, who defines herself as a comedian, although in her case, her delivery might be genuinely bad.
I HATE the “she’s got a pretty face” BS.
I was 115 when I got pregnant with my daughter and couldn’t stop plumping up after. When I would have a “down day” about my appearance I would ALLWAYs hear “but you’ve got such a pretty face.”
Why does my body and my face have to be referred to as a separate? Why does my jiggle automatically make my face pretty?
When I was thin I had the average face with a banging body and when I was bigger I had the pretty face………
Now I’ve lost 50% of what I was and only 40Lbs away from my before baby weight and I still have “a pretty face.” I hate people who try to “look at the positive” side of being over weight. We know we are fat! We know what we look like! I also know that I’m fun, caring, funny, committed to those I love, and much much more!