Whoopi Goldberg sets the record straight after a review of her latest film, “Till,” claimed that she wore a fat suit for the movie.
A Daily Beast reporter mentioned Goldberg briefly in a lukewarm review, stating that she was “in a distracting fat suit” for her portrayal as Emmett Till’s grandmother. The review has now been modified to remove that sentence, and an editor’s remark has been added.
“I don’t really care how you felt about the movie, but you should know that was not a fat suit,” Goldberg said on Monday’s episode of “The View.” “That was me. That was steroids.”
Goldberg was alluding to the health issues she faced last year due to sciatica, a kind of nerve pain, for which she was hospitalized and began using a walker. She revealed that she was taking steroids at the time, which may be used to relieve sciatica symptoms.
“It’s OK to not be a fan of the movie, but you want to leave people’s looks out,” Goldberg said.
However, it is not uncommon for a popular and award-winning actress to wear a fat suit in a major film. Many celebrities have worn fat suits, often in unpleasant ways. From Gwyneth Paltrow’s portrayal of an obese lady in 2001’s “Shallow Hal” to Sarah Paulson’s portrayal of Linda Tripp in last year’s “American Crime Story: Impeachment,” the performers wearing fat suits are frequently not obese. Men, too, have donned fat costumes, most notably John Travolta in “Hairspray,” Ryan Reynolds in “Just Friends,” and Eddie Murphy in “Norbit.”
This year has witnessed an increase in the number of notable actors wearing fat costumes: Renée Zellweger in “The Thing About Pam” and Tom Hanks in “Elvis” are two Oscar winners who have worn fat suits for parts. Emma Thompson wears one in the upcoming musical rendition of “Matilda,” while Brendan Fraser plays an obese man nearing the end of his life while wearing many pounds of prosthetics in the awards season film “The Whale.”
Viewers sometimes criticize the tactic, especially when a director chooses not to choose an actor whose body type already fits that of the character. Retired professor and media researcher J. Kevin Thompson stated that using fat suits in media, particularly when the characters portrayed by actors in fat suits are made fun of or portrayed in an unflattering light, can be psychologically damaging to viewers and that women suffer disproportionately.
“These roles were most often associated with ‘humor,’ which, of course, might not be so funny if one were the butt of the joke,” Thompson said.
“Till,” on the other hand, purportedly does not contain actors in fat suits. The film will be released on October 14 and will focus on Mamie Till’s involvement and contributions to the civil rights movement following the death of her son, Emmett.