Busy Philipps was between a size 6 and 8 when Hollywood decided that her body qualified her to play “the fat girl” in White Chicks, the 2004 comedy starring the Wayans brothers.
The actress, now 46 and known for Dawson’s Creek, shared this in a series of Instagram stories after watching the Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. She said that revisiting the industry’s obsession with thinness was “really disturbing” for her. She recalled that after the film’s release, people recognized her on the street and said things like “What happened to you? You’re so thin now,” not knowing that the comment confirmed exactly what she was calling out.
Philipps also mentioned that at the time, women were simply told that it was “their job” to deal with the discomfort. Her testimony also appears in her 2018 memoir.
