Don’t mess with Toby! Chris Sullivan is well aware that not everyone is happy upon learning that Toby wears a fat suit on This is Us, but he’s not letting that get him down.
“I think that the show is just too good; they had to find something wrong with it,” Sullivan said on the Tuesday, October 24, episode of Watch What Happens Live when asked about the outrage from fans of the show.
While he admitted he understands that people feel “fooled by things they see on TV,” he thinks the backlash comes from those just looking for something to complain about.
“We currently live in a culture where outrage is a bit of a hobby for some people. If they’re not outraged about something, they’re totally bored,” the 37-year-old actor said. “It’s a tool. It’s a costume that I put on. Logistically speaking, it allows me to travel back and forth through time when Toby was not as heavy as he is now.”
Sullivan then appeared on the Today show on Wednesday morning and defended it again to Megyn Kelly.
“There is a lot of things to be outraged about these days, and I think that getting outraged about an actor on a television show who may be wearing a costume that makes him larger than he is, might be low on the list,” Sullivan told the host. “At least in my opinion. If I am not portraying Toby with the level of integrity or honesty — [if] you disagree with [that], I would be happy to talk about that. But I think that regardless of the costumes that I wear, especially with Toby, I try to bring as much heart and honesty as I can.”
In February 2017, Sullivan’s costar Chrissy Metz also came to his defense during an interview on Watch What Happens Live, saying ultimately he was just the best for the role.
“We tested a lot of gentlemen who were bigger, and I get it — people think the authenticity is kind of ruined by that. But Chris has been heavier, so I think he understands the plight of being overweight,” Metz, 37, explained. “Also he was just the best man for the job. And people wear prosthetics all the time — it’s just weight as opposed to, like, a nose or a chin. It’s just kind of the name of the game.”
This is Us airs on NBC on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
