Setting the record straight. Whoopi Goldberg responded to a film review that claimed she wore a fat suit in her new movie Till.
“There was a young lady who writes for one of the magazines, and she was distracted by my fat suit in her review,” the 66-year-old EGOT winner said during the Monday, October 3, episode of The View. “I don’t really care how you felt about the movie, but you should know that was not a fat suit, that was me … I assume you don’t watch [The View], or you would know that was not a fat suit.”
She continued: “It’s OK to not be a fan of the movie, but you want to leave people’s looks out. Just comment on the acting. And if you have a question, ask somebody. I’m sure you didn’t mean to be demeaning.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, the Color Purple actress was referring to a line in The Daily Beast’s review of the Emmet Till biopic, which has since been removed.
Goldberg plays Till’s grandmother Alma Carthan in the film, which tells the true story of the titular character’s 1955 murder. While speaking about the project on The View, the Sister Act star urged audience members to not be deterred by the movie’s depictions of violence.
“If you’re watching Jeffrey Dahmer [Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story] … you’ve seen much more violence than you’ll see in this,” she said. “It’s an important film for families because if you are a mother, this could be your child. 67 years ago, this happened and we’re still in the midst of it.”
Comments about Goldberg’s appearance in Till came amid an ongoing conversation about actors wearing fat suits. Brendan Fraser donned prosthetics to portray a 600-pound man in Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming film The Whale, sparking some backlash in the process.
“No matter how well a slim actor might portray a fat person in a dramatic role, they can still, at the end of the day, zip out of that fat suit and reap all the benefits of having a societally accepted body type. They can absorb the praise of being fat when it suits them, but can shed that skin at will,” Charlotte Colombo wrote of the film via The Digital Fix in September.
Fraser and Aronofsky, both 53, defended the intentions of The Whale during an August conversation with Vanity Fair.
“I looked at other body suits that had been used in comedies over the years, usually for a one-note joke,” the Mummy actor said. “Whether intended or not, the joke is, it defies gravity. This was not that.”
The Black Swan director, for his part, told the outlet, “Unfortunately, so many characters portrayed in the media who are living with obesity are treated awfully — either they’re humiliated, made fun of, or just living in squalor. That was never [Fraser’s character] Charlie. Obesity is just part of what Charlie is. After 10 minutes of spending time with Charlie, that’s the breakthrough that we hope the film has [for viewers].”
Till hits theaters on October 14th.
