CNN
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Whoopi Goldberg is correcting the record after a review of her new movie, ‘Till’, claims Goldberg wore a big suit while filming.
In a mixed review, a Daily Beast reporter only mentions Goldberg once, writing that Goldberg was “in a big, distracting costume” for her role as Emmett Till’s grandmother. The review has since been edited to omit this line and includes an editor’s note.
“I don’t care how you felt about the movie, but you should know it wasn’t a big costume,” Goldberg said. said on Monday’s episode of “The View.” “It was me. It was steroids.
Goldberg was referring to health issues she encountered last year with sciatica, a type of nerve pain, for which she was hospitalized and started using a walker. She said on “The View” that at the time she was taking steroids, which can be used to treat the symptoms of sciatica.
“It’s okay not to be a fan of the movie, but you want to leave people out,” Goldberg said.
It’s not uncommon, however, for a popular, award-winning actress in a high-profile movie to wear a big suit. Many stars have donned thick suits, sometimes in a demeaning way. From Gwyneth Paltrow as an obese woman in 2001’s “Shallow Hal” to Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp in last year’s “American Crime Story: Impeachment,” actors inside big suits are often not big. Men too have worn thick suits, mostly in comedic roles, including John Travolta in “Hairspray”, Ryan Reynolds in “Just Friends” and Eddie Murphy in “Norbit”.
This year alone has seen a wave of famous actors wearing bold suits: Renée Zellweger in “The Thing About Pam” and Tom Hanks in “Elvis” are two examples of Oscar winners who have worn bold suits for roles. . Emma Thompson wears one in the musical adaptation of ‘Matilda’ due out later this year, and in awards season vehicle ‘The Whale’, Brendan Fraser plays an obese man at the end of his life under several kilos of prostheses.
Viewers often criticize the practice, particularly when a filmmaker chooses not to cast an actor whose body type already matches that of the character. In a recent interview with The New York Times, J. Kevin Thompson, a retired professor and media scholar, said that the use of thick overalls in the media – especially when characters portrayed by actors in thick overalls are mocked or portrayed in an unflattering light – can be psychologically damaging to viewers and women disproportionately bear most of this damage.
“These roles were most often associated with ‘humor,’ which of course might not be as funny if one was the butt of the joke,” Thompson told The Times.
For its part, “Till” apparently does not feature actors in big suits. The film, which focuses on Mamie Till’s activism and her contributions to the civil rights movement following the murder of her son, Emmett, will be released on October 14.