Summary

Gwyneth Paltrow’s body double from Shallow Hal, Ivy Snitzer, reveals how the movie nearly broke her. Snitzer shares that playing the role of a 300-pound woman left her feeling ugly, lonely, and scared. She expresses her desire to make people laugh and not cause sadness, and discusses her struggles with body image and eating disorders.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s body double from Shallow Hal, Ivy Snitzer, speaks out about how the movie nearly broke her. Written and directed by the Farrelly brothers, the 2001 romantic comedy follows a shallow man named Hal (played by Jack Black) who is hypnotized into only seeing a person’s inner beauty and subsequently falls in love with a 300-pound woman named Rosemary. While Paltrow wore a fat suit for scenes featuring her face, Snitzer was used for close-ups shots of Rosemary’s body.

In a new interview with The Guardian, Snitzer spoke out about how Shallow Hal almost broke her. Paltrow’s body double reflected on the casting process and production, both of which were mostly positive experiences for her. It wasn’t until after the movie came out that Snitzer suffered a crisis. Later, in 2003, she had gastric band surgery and experienced complications, though Snitzer isn’t sure if her weight loss surgery was influenced by Shallow Hal. Read a portion of her comments below:

It didn’t occur to me that the film would be seen by millions of people. It was like the worst parts about being fat were magnified. And no one was telling me I was funny. It is not the worst thing in the world to be fat. I got really scared. I was like: maybe I’m done with the concept of fame, maybe I don’t want to be an actor. Maybe I’ll do something else. I just want to make people laugh; I don’t want to make people sad.
Out of all of the fat people in the world that they could have hired for that job, they hired me, because of my personality. Before, I had to fight really hard to be seen as a personality and not just my size. I wasn’t body positive, because it didn’t really exist that way. I was kind of “me positive,” because I was like: I’m funny, that’s good enough! I hated my body the way I was supposed to. I ate a lot of salads. I had eating disorders that I was very proud of.
I love that it’s a cool thing I did one time. It didn’t make me feel bad about myself. Until you know, other people started telling me I probably should have felt bad about myself. I wanted to be small and not seen. I’m sure that’s there, but I don’t ever remember consciously thinking about it. I was always my personality. I’ve always been a personality in this body.

Gwyneth Paltrow Also Had A Bad Experience Filming Shallow Hal

Snitzer wasn’t the only one who had a negative experience filming Shallow Hall, as Gwyneth Paltrow underwent a similar experience as her body double. To portray fat Rosemary in scenes featuring her face, Paltrow had to wear a specially designed 25-pound fat suit and prosthetic make-up, which the lead actress particularly dreaded putting on. Paltrow later admitted that she did not enjoy partaking in the production of the movie, which she says taught her what it is like to be humiliated as an obese person.

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Though Paltrow and Snitzer both had uncomfortable experiences playing Rosemary, Shallow Hall is ultimately an uplifting story about internal beauty, self-worth, and the dangers of shallow judgments. The film was panned by both critics and audiences, though the Farrelly brothers have defended it, arguing the movie is more than a mere “fat joke” and instead offers a positive message about “inner beauty.” In the end, Shallow Hal encourages audiences to look beyond physical appearance and appreciate the more important qualities.

Source: The Guardian