Melissa McCarthy responds to ‘tractor-sized’ and ‘female hippo’ comments from Identity Thief review
Months after being called “tractor-sized” by New York Observer critic Rex Reed in a review of Identity Thief, Melissa McCarthy is finally speaking out. In a new interview with The New York Times, the actress wonders not only why Rex was so filled with hate, but also why someone would approve the comment to be published.
“Really? Why would someone O.K. that?” Melissa asked, during the June 13 interview.
Reed’s review also called the Emmy Award winning and Academy Award nominated actress a “female hippo ” and a “gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious.”
As hurtful as Reeds’ comments were, Melissa felt bad for the guy more than anything. “I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate,” she explains. “I just thought, that’s someone who’s in a really bad spot, and I am in such a happy spot. I laugh my head off every day with my husband and my kids who are mooning me and singing me songs.”
Although Melissa admits that Rex calling her a “humungous creep” and “female hippo” may have “crushed me” years ago, she says that her body image since having kids has changed and she simply isn’t as affected as she once was. That being said, Melissa says her two young daughters are coming up during “a strange epidemic of body image and body dysmorphia,” and that articles like Reed’s “just add to all those younger girls, that are not in a place in their life where they can say, ‘That doesn’t reflect on me.’ ”
“That makes it more true,” she said. “It means you don’t actually look good enough.”
Melissa has also been in the headlines lately for another issue regarding her weight — or lack of — in the new, highly Photoshopped movie poster for her upcoming comedy with Sandra Bullock, The Heat.
Top Photo: Adriana M. Barraza/WENN.com
