Gabourey Sidibe has a new memoir coming out, This is Just My Face: Try Not To Stare, in which she reveals that she had laparoscopic bariatric surgery last year. During promotion for the book she candidly explained that she had the surgery for health reasons and that she was concerned after both she and her older brother were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Gabby was a participant on Glamour magazine’s powered by women panel at SXSW over the weekend, which focused on female filmmakers. She was candid and funny as she discussed how her size is brought up in very derogatory ways in scripts she’s sent. She said that does not reflect her day to day experiences at all. She also praised the show Girls for showing flawed characters and explained how she often has to tell white male scriptwriters that their lines are not authentic.

On scripts she’s sent
“I get a lot of scripts and offers where someone has to make mention of my body immediately. Someone wrote a script with me in mind and the first time someone other than my character was talking about my character, they say ‘this hippo’ or ‘this elephant'”

“I’m like, ‘Are you serious? You wrote something for me and you’re calling me a hippo.’ This is my body. This has been my body my entire life, and in my life my friends and my colleagues are not constantly talking about my body. But in most of my roles, somebody has to make mention of it”

She praised the writers behind Empire and Difficult People for not focusing on her figure. However, Sidibe said her body isn’t the only element about her that comes into play when reviewing scripts.

“I have had to read plenty of lines and words for my black a– that was written by a white man,” Sidibe said. “Not to say that it is not good. There is a lot that you don’t know, really. Depending on the work, I have had to check the honesty and cater it to me as a black woman. It is the actor’s job to honesty-check it.”

On Girls, which was the TV show she cited as making her see women differently
“I am pretty bad, I am probably perfectly normal, but there is a running tape of my mom in my head that says ‘why are you not nice?’ And those characters are s- right?”

[From People]

Can you imagine being told that a part was written for you and having to read really obnoxious put downs about your character in the opening lines? People think it’s fine and that she should be flattered, I’m assuming, that they wrote the character for her. I’m glad she has a voice, I’m glad she’s talking about these issues and calling out writers and showrunners, but I wish there was enough diversity across Hollywood that this didn’t need to happen. There are some strides being made, I’m thinking of Octavia Spencer’s new production company and of showrunners like Shonda Rhimes and John Ridley, but the default is still white men running everything and telling women and minorities how they should think and feel about their own experiences.

Gabby’s full interview with People Magazine has been published on their site. It’s well worth a read. She goes more into depth about her decision to have surgery (her trainer passed away from cancer and that was a catalyst for her) and her day to day routine. I really liked what she said about people concern-trolling her. She said “What angers me about what people say about my body is that they assume that they care about my health more than I do. And that is impossible. You don’t care. You only care that you have a voice, and you think your voice gets to say something about me. But I care more than anybody really knows.” About the people who put her down on social media, Gabby said “You think I’ve not heard worse than this since Kindergarten? You’re unoriginal.”

My first time at #SXSW was super fun! Shoes and dress by @torridfashion. Makeup and edges by @saradomi_makeup

A post shared by Gabby Sidibe 👸🏿 (@gabby3shabby) on Mar 12, 2017 at 12:17pm PDT