Actor Rebel Wilson said her agency encouraged her to maintain her weight after realizing they could earn more if she continued to play the “fat funny girl.”
The Australian star is best known for her roles in ‘Bridesmaids’ and the ‘Pitch Perfect’ franchise, in which she played a character named ‘Fat Amy.’
In her memoir ‘Rebel Rising’ the 44-year-old said when she told her agent her plan to “get healthier” to have a child, she was not met with support.
Per Vanity Fair, Wilson wrote: “The agency liked me fat because they got hundreds of thousands of dollars in commission for each film where I played the fat funny girl.”
As a result, Wilson added she was shoved into a “multimillion-dollar pigeonhole.”
Fortune has reached out to Wilson’s representatives for comment.
A breakdown of Wilson’s pay cheques suggests that roles such as ‘Fat Amy’ have indeed earned the actor—and her associates—big paydays.
According to excerpts seen by People, Wilson claimed she was paid just $3,500 for her role in ‘Bridesmaids’ alongside writer and costars Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo.
The paycheck “didn’t matter” to Wilson, who said the figure was enough to pay her SAG-AFTRA union fee while propelling her to global stardom.
Fast forward six years and Wilson had landed the role of ‘Fat Amy’ in the acapella movie series ‘Pitch Perfect’ alongside ‘Twilight’ star Anna Kendrick.
And it was in the final installment of the trilogy that netted Wilson a $10 million salary.
In an interview with The New York Times released this week, Wilson heaped praise on the team at Universal Studios, but said she wanted to make sure she got her share of the “ton of money” they were generating.
“Despite me absolutely loving all those folks at Universal, did I use that leverage to my advantage? Yes,” she said. “And in the 11th hour, I go, ‘You know, that’s a lovely offer of $9 million. But I need one more to make it 10.’”
In a glimpse into the inner workings of Hollywood negotiations, she added: “That’s a big milestone when you’re an actor. To receive an eight-figure offer, for a woman, is huge.
“Sometimes women don’t like to talk about that. Whereas I don’t think the guys have any issues saying they get $20 million a movie.”
Wilson’s memoir isn’t the first time she’s discussed the pressure she’s felt about her appearance.
Speaking on the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast last year, Wilson said: “I couldn’t lose a massive amount of weight … you can’t lose more than 10 pounds or gain more than 10 pounds. You have to kind of stay at the weight, it’s in your contract.”
“I was stereotyped as playing that fat funny friend,” she added.
Fans weren’t thrilled
In 2020 Wilson embarked on a weight loss journey to lose 80 pounds, prompted by a conversation she had with her fertility doctor.
“He looked me up and down and said: ‘You’d do much better if you were healthier,’ ” Wilson told People in 2022.
“I was taken aback. I thought, ‘Oh God, this’s guy’s so rude.’ He was right. I was carrying around a lot of excess weight.
“It’s almost like I didn’t think of my own needs. I thought of a future child’s needs that really inspired me to get healthier.”
But the Sydney-born star said her supporters had some mixed reaction to the decision.
“There were some people that were like, ‘Oh, we don’t think she’s funny anymore,’ or, ‘Now she’s lost me as a fan because I can’t relate to her anymore,’” Wilson told the NYT.
She encouraged those individuals to read the book, saying it sheds light on her health journey: “Obviously I have a sweet tooth. That’s my vice. And in times of stress, I’d been dealing with it by eating. I don’t think that will ever, ever go away.”
