Rebel Wilson has revealed she lost weight to “get more acting roles”.
The host of this year’s Baftas famously embarked on a “year of health” in 2020 and lost 77lbs.
Rebel Wilson is internationally recognized for her acting skills and comedic brilliance, and yet, the majority of media coverage focuses around her weight with endless headlines speculating on her diet history, congratulating her if she loses weight and shaming her if she gains it.
At this year’s BAFTAs, which Rebel hosted, she decided to address her recent weight loss in her opening speech. “I might look a bit different from the last time you guys saw me here,” she said with the crowd cheering before an image of her from 2020 – when she also hosted the awards ceremony – appeared on screens across the stage. “This was me two years ago and since then I’ve done quite a transformation.”
For many watching, the decision to subject herself to a ‘before-and-after’ was a strange one to make and some attendees looked visibly uncomfortable, including Emma Watson, whose face fell into a sorrowful grimace at Rebel’s words.
Before-and-after weight comparisons have a distinct distastefulness about them, serving only to fat-shame and cement the antiquated but prevailing societal view that ‘thin is king’. As women, we’re taught that our value is based on our attractiveness, and that thinness = attractiveness.
So, why did Rebel Wilson feel the need to use the opening moment of the BAFTAs as an opportunity to explain her lifestyle choices? After all, shouldn’t the ceremony be all about celebrating outstanding talent?
Maybe she knew the media was going to comment on her weight and she wanted to beat them to it in an attempt to control her own narrative, she has certainly used her Instagram to document her journey along the way.
Rebel alluded to this in a recent interview with Hollywood Reporter, saying: “When you’re a comedian, you use things about your physicality to your advantage, and I used being a plus-size girl to my advantage in many comedy movies.
Some people have said to me, “Now that you lost weight, are you scared you won’t be funny anymore?” I like to make a joke about it myself first because it is different.”
“Everybody is asking me, ‘why did you lose weight’. Well, clearly, it was to get the attention of Robert Pattinson…Just joking! Guys, seriously, I did not lose weight just for a a guy. As if! I did it to get more acting roles,” she joked pointedly.
In fact, in the Hollywood Reporter interview, Rebel herself confessed that different roles have come her way since losing weight. “I found that with the British drama The Almond and the Seahorse — I’m not sure I would have been cast in that when I was a bigger girl because they kind of stereotype you a bit more when you’re bigger,” she said. “[Losing weight] has definitely diversified my stocks.”