Kirstie Alley Begins New Career as ‘Fat Actress’
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Fat Actress” isn’t a label many people in Hollywood would embrace, but former “Cheers” star Kirstie Alley is reveling in it.
She even enjoyed seeing what she admits is a very unflattering shot of her ample rear end on a 100-foot movie screen at the premier party for her new sitcom “Fat Actress,” which premiers on the Showtime cable TV network on Monday.
“We were explaining to a guest of ours it was on this huge wide screen and then midsentence I was, ‘Oh my God,”‘ Alley said in an interview the day after the premier. “I was a little apprehensive, thinking it’s going to be 100 feet wide.”
Alley plays herself in the show, an overweight and out-of-work actress. The first episode opens with her wailing hysterically on the floor of her bathroom having realized that the reason she can’t get a job is her size.
“My message wasn’t ‘Oh wow, don’t I look beautiful even though I’m hefty.’ That’s not what I was trying to accomplish,” Alley said. “I was trying to accomplish somebody pathetically realizing that they’re really fat.”
There are no punches pulled in the show, which was unscripted beyond a detailed outline of the plot. The actors improvise, apparently trying to outdo each other in how politically incorrect they can be.
In one scene Alley has a meeting with the head of NBC Universal Television, Jeff Zucker, who plays himself, to discuss a new sitcom. Zucker is visibly shocked at her size and, when she leaves the room, calls her agent to complain about it.
“I don’t think it’s an attack on Hollywood,” she said.
“It’s a comment on how if any woman walks into any interview overweight they would be all nicey nice and when she left they would go, ‘Oh my God, she’s so fat.’ It’s not exclusive to Hollywood,” she said.
FAT MEN WITH SKINNY WIVES
In another scene Alley is shouting down the phone to her agent about the injustice of a system where men have no pressure to be thin and stars like James Gandolfini of “The Sopranos” positively thrive on it.
“I know very, very few actresses who are not called in to be reprimanded about their weight,” Alley said in the interview. “And that can’t be true of men because if you just turn on the TV … most men are fat.”
“Apparently it’s a prerequisite … to having a sitcom. Men have to be fat and their wives have to be 20 years younger and skinny.” Alley said when she was starring in “Cheers” and later “Veronica’s Closet,” she was constantly under pressure if she gained any weight.
“I think on ‘Veronica’s Closet” I started at around 140 (pounds) and got up to 160 on and off, and still at 5-(foot)-8 that’s not tubby-go-lardy,” she said.
But she added: “It doesn’t make me angry. We create our own lives.” She said she is just as likely to laugh at a fat person, or animal, as anybody else.
“It does denote laziness. To me, I was lazy. I got lazy and complacent like a big fat deer,” said the actress who has now signed a contract with diet guru Jenny Craig to promote the diet plan which she says has so far helped her lose 20 pounds.
Under the terms of the deal Alley declined to say how much she weighs now. At age 54 and with two children, she is larger than most of her peers in showbusiness but hardly out of the ordinary in a country where obesity is a growing problem.
Even as she strives to slim down, Alley says she is baffled by the preoccupation with looks and the body in society.
“I think it needs to be made fun of. You can’t be preachy and have them learn, so you have to do it in a way that you have them laugh,” she said. “Is it the worst problem in the world that I need to lose 50 pounds? I don’t think so.”
The first season of “Fat Actress” has guest stars such as John Travolta and Kid Rock. Showtime has signed a deal with Yahoo to stream it to viewers on the Internet.
“You can’t do fat jokes forever but you can certainly do them for seven shows,” Alley said, promising more plot twists in the second season after she has lost weight. “I become completely promiscuous and become so in love with myself, and of course that’s setting myself up for another big fall.”
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