During a chat on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Jonah Hill openly discussed his fluctuating weight and how it has inspired him to seek messages of community and acceptance in his directorial debut, “Mid90s. ”
In the interview with DeGeneres, Hill shared a magazine he created to compliment his coming-of-age film. In the magazine he reflects on his past self as being “this 14 year old kid, being overweight wanting to fit in with these skaters and hip hop kids… not understanding (his) own worth.”
Hill read from his magazine: “I became famous in my late teens and then spent most of my young adult life listening to people say that I was fat and gross and unattractive.”
Hill said it was only in writing and directing “Mid90s” that made him begin to realize “how much that hurt and got into my head.” He went on: “I really believe everyone has a snapshot of themselves from a time when they were young that they’re ashamed of. For me, it’s that 14-year-old overweight and unattractive kid who felt ugly to the world.”
Hill’s weight has dramatically varied at different times in his career, and it has been covered by tabloid paparazzi.
“I came in goofy comedies…(as) this kind of curly haired, overweight kid,” the actor-turned-director told DeGeneres. “Everyone had their own opinion on what I should be, how they could speak to me, how they could treat me. ”
In addition to the film having central message about acceptance and growth, Hill said his work aims to accurately depict the Los Angeles skating scene in the 1990s — warts and all.
Hill included the use of homophobic slurs and adolescent sexual encounters to tell the truth of an environment he knew personally. He told Slate’s Jeffrey Bloomer that he had his actors use homophobic slurs to portray ugly and harmful behavior that people growing up during that time period may have to unlearn. “We’re talking about language that is ugly, behavior that is ugly,” said Hill. “I felt it was more important to tell the truth and have that be the lesson, and show it in its ugliness, than to go back and change history.”
Hill also told DeGeneres that the film’s underage sex scene was meant to reveal the use of it as a means of gaining popularity or reputation. The movie, Hill said, reflects on the past and how we face it in the present.
“To me this movie is about learning to love yourself and finding a community of people that accepts you and how imperfect life is,” Hill said. “I’m under construction like we all are.”
11 Famous Body Shaming Victims, From Kerry Washington to Gal Gadot (Photos)
WWE used body shaming in a 2010 storyline, in which frequent champion Mickie James was mockingly called "Piggy James" and had a cake shoved in her face. James won the feud, but the storyline was roundly panned. Fortunately, WWE seems to take their women more seriously nowadays.
After pictures showing his weight gain became Internet joke fodder in 2010, Wentworth Miller opened up about how he turned to eating to deal with his severe depression.
E! News anchor Giuliana Rancic has been the target of Internet comments for being too thin after undergoing a double mastectomy in 2011 after her breast cancer diagnosis.
Kerry Washington revealed in 2013 that she struggled with bulimia in college. She's re-entered the body image conversation in April 2016 when she criticized AdWeek for photoshopping her face on their cover.
When Gal Gadot was cast to play Wonder Woman in the DC Cinematic Universe, some fans criticized her on Twitter for being too thin or not having large enough breasts. On an Israeli talk show, Gadot declared she would be the "Wonder Woman of the New World."
In her 2014 lawsuit against Lukasz Sebastian "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, Kesha claimed that the producer called her things like a "fat fucking refrigerator" to the point that she went to rehab to deal with an eating disorder. She's now fighting back against body shaming on Instagram.
In a 2014 interview with USA Today, Emma Stone remarked how she often gets comments on the Internet telling her to "eat a sandwich." "We shame each other online," she said. "We're always too skinny or too fat or too tall or too short."
Before her recent spat with Glamour over being included in the magazine's "Plus Size" issue, Amy Schumer was honored at Glamour's Women of the Year ceremony, where she joked about comments made about her weight: "I'm probably, like, 160 pounds and I can catch a dick whenever I want!"
In October 2015, British model Charli Howard, who is 5-foot-8 and a size 4, was dropped from her agency for being "too big." She responded with a scathing Facebook post criticizing the agency's "ridiculous, unobtainable beauty standards."
Daisy Ridley hit back at an Instagram troll in March 2016 who accused her of setting "unrealistic expectations" by being too thin. "I will not apologise for how I look, what I say and how I live my life," she responded.
Erin Heatherton spent five years strutting the runway at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, but revealed in an interview in April 2016 that she left the company in 2013 after being told after her last two shows that she had to lose weight.
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Former Victoria’s Secret model Erin Heatherton is latest celebrity to share details about reaction to being labeled “too big” — or told to “eat a sandwich”
