Barbie Ferreira has risen to fame after starring as Kat on the HBO hit show Euphoria. Kat's body and sex-positive character arc have come to an end after her little screen time in season two of the show, and she announced last August before the release of the third season of Euphoria that she would be leaving the series altogether. Because of a recent Rolling Stone article about the writer and director, Sam Levinson, over-sexualizing and mistreating female characters, Ferreira had to clear the air that she didn't leave due to the drama behind the scenes. After her initial departure post made on Instagram, Ferreira went into deeper detail on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. She has noted that she "doesn't want to just play the fat friend" that she has been type-casted into for the show and that she felt there was very little room for growth with her role as Kat.
This is not the first time we have seen or heard about an actress leaving their roles, and presumably, it won't be the last. While a good majority of the time, we see Hollywood pressuring actresses to lose weight for roles, there has also been the opposite phenomenon happening where actresses are encouraged to maintain weight or gain weight to fill the role of the overweight friend or character. Actresses like Rebel Wilson, Shannon Purser, and Melanie Lynskey have also spoken out about the same sentiment that Barbie shared.
RELATED: 'Stranger Things': Let Hopper Be Fat
Rebel Wilson Wasn't Allowed to Lose Weight
Rebel Wilson played the iconic Fat Amy in Pitch Perfect back in 2012 as well as the sequels in 2015 and 2017. While filming these movies, Wilson was forbidden from losing any amount of weight because it was written into her contract that she would maintain the weight she was at to accurately portray Fat Amy. In an interview on Call Her Daddy for Spotify, Wilson mentions that she loves the role of Fat Amy because of the confidence she exudes and that she does love playing those types of characters. However, being a bigger girl she is stereotyped as playing the fat, funny friend, and the pigeonhole for those characters is very small. Wilson ended up losing a significant amount of weight after her Pitch Perfect days because of her personal life and health and how they tied together.
In the same Spotify interview, Wilson shares that a fertility doctor said she would have a hard time getting pregnant at her body weight, and her motivation to transform herself was because of that. After her five-year contract with Pitch Perfect was up, Wilson made the changes she had been wanting to make but wasn't allowed to, even though her PR team was worried that losing the weight would impact her career and she wouldn't be offered as many roles.
Shannon Purser Wants More
If you're a fan of Stranger Things, you know Barb deserved better in season one than the demise she met. Shannon Purser starred as Barb Holland and feels strongly about how little upward trajectory bigger characters are allowed on screen. In 2022, Purser tweeted "There are almost no fat big-name stars because fat actors aren't allowed upward mobility". She also refers to the like as two-dimensional set pieces, indicating that there is little value to a show or movie if you are cast as the fat friend or character. This tweet was reportedly in response to Emma Thompson donning a fat sue to play Miss Trunchbull in the remake of Matilda.
When there are many actresses available with the same body type that Miss Trunchbull has, fans and other actors and actresses were upset by the use of a fat suit instead of allowing that role to be played by a larger-bodied woman. Barb was a character that was widely loved because she wasn't the stereotypical comedic relief that a fat friend typically is but provided some complex character traits and didn't entirely fit into the stereotypical box that many before her have been cast in.
Melanie Lynskey Demands Diversification
Melanie Lynskey is an Emmy Award winner and is most recently starring on the hit tv shows Yellowjackets and The Last Of Us. In a 2023 interview with the New York Times, Lynskey talked about how she wants to play an interesting character or a character with depth rather than the focus being on how she can contribute based on her weight or body type. She recollects a time when she was auditioning for a part and the character she was reading for was holding or consuming a candy bar in every scene. Lynskey has also commented that whether it is positive or negative, she is tired of hearing about her body in relation to her career.
When her role as Kathleen on The Last Of Us was announced, many were excited, but she did receive a slight backlash from Adrianne Curry on her body type for the role. Curry tweeted in response to Lynksey's InStyle Magazine photoshoot saying "Her body says life of luxury...not post apocalyptic warlord. Where is Linda Hamilton when you need her?" Here, the insinuation is that her body type was not appropriate for someone taking on zombies because she wasn't muscular enough. Lynksey tweeted later that receiving the role of Kathleen was important to her because it allowed for her to play a role not centered around her body type, but instead around her intelligence and how she contributed to navigating the strange world while still being feminine and soft instead of the stereotypes she could've been cast as.
Having more actors and actresses that have various body weights and sizes is a positive in an industry that has previously been focused solely on looks. However, when the focus of the character is more on their size or shape rather than their ability to act and contribute to creating a great film or show, it becomes a daunting task to diversify roles. Very seldom do we see any woman who is considered overweight as the love interest, but rather the funny friend or the comedic relief. More actresses like Ferreira, Wilson, Purser, and Lynksey speaking out about how they deserve a complete character arc and diversification of roles is what the industry needs. Society as a whole is becoming more body positive and is opening its eyes to see that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and that an actress isn't just her appearance. Movies like Dumplin' and Sierra Burgess Is A Loser as well as shows like Shrill are allowing the stereotypes to be broken and celebrating large-bodied women as well-deserved lead roles.
