We all loved Melissa McCarthy in the number of movies she has starred in – be it as Susan Cooper, a CIA Agent in Spy (2015) or the sassy cop, Mullins in The Heat (2013). The list is quite long.
McCarthy has been a constant reminder to all of us, who do not fit into the strict beauty standards of Hollywood, that being successful has got nothing to do with body shapes and sizes.
In an interview, the actor said,
“I think most women in the US are a 14. I think like 72 percent of women are a 14. So I think it’s a little insane if you’re in this business to tell your biggest section of clientele that you don’t want their business.”
The Bridesmaids star, recently, posted a photo of her cover of the current issue of Glamour. The photo shows her new face, now significantly less round and puffy after a 75-pound weight loss.
However, McCarthy has made it very clear that she had decided to lose weight after taking a serious look at her health. Never one to buy into the Hollywood notions of beauty, she did it for her own reasons not because she wanted to trim down to get roles.
So, how did she do this?
McCarthy was on a complete Ketogenic diet that focuses on “healthy fats” and eschews carbohydrates. However, the 47-year-old actor candidly mentions,
“I truly stopped worrying about it. I think there’s something to kinda loosening up and not being so nervous and rigid about it that, bizarrely, has worked.”
Her weight loss has been the cause of inspiration to many and she has been showered with compliments. This has, however, brought the focus on another barrier the Oscar-nominated actress has overcome: namely, being broke.
Years ago, before the success of 2011’s Bridesmaids made her a breakout star, Melissa was a college dropout desperate to make a career in stand-up comedy. She was 20, broke, and thrown into the unforgiving streets of New York. At one point, she was so broke she couldn’t afford a Happy Meal.
“I remember when you could still get a $5 bill out of an ATM and I couldn’t get it because [my balance] was under $5,”
she recalled.
She also found out that being a woman in the industry was working against her.
But those days are over now for McCarthy. Thanks to a few breakout roles, combined with hard work, fierce negotiating, and the willingness to learn from her mistakes McCarthy is now one of the highest-paid women in Hollywood.
On being asked about her weight and if she is going to maintain this weight, she said,
“I’ll be up, I’ll be down, probably for the rest of my life. The thing is, if that is the most interesting thing about me, I need to go have a lavender farm in Minnesota and give this up. There has to be something more. There are so many more intriguing things about women than their butt or their this or their that. It can’t be the first question every time, or a question at all…”
