Type-casting acts as quicksand in the world of Hollywood. One minute, an actor picks up a role for the sake of making their name. All of a sudden, they find themselves being sucked into it, not being able to escape the clutches of the identity that is being forced on them. Many actors have become prey to it and very few have managed to survive.
Rebel Wilson has been a part of Hollywood for years now, however, she became stuck in the ‘fat-funny friend’ stereotype and found it very difficult to leave. In her recently released memoir, she talked about how she was forced to be very strict about her weight, not being allowed to lose it for the sake of getting more roles.
While this was quite negative for her mental health, it would seem that such a strategy was very beneficial for her professional life, even helping her score an eight-figure deal.
Rebel Wilson Gets the Deal of a Lifetime
Rebel Wilson recently released her memoir, Rebel Rising, where she talked about all of the trials and tribulations of her profession and personal life. She talked about her issues with her weight, as well as how using binge eating as a coping mechanism affected her life. In one section of the book, she talked about the Pitch Perfect series, and how she got her money’s worth on the third film
Fat Amy’s character in the film series is one of the biggest reasons why fans loved it as much as they did. When she starred in the first film, she was a fairly unknown actress so getting paid a lesser amount made sense. However, by the third film, she almost became the star of the show. Knowing this, she asked Universal to pay her what she deserved, as she revealed to The New York Times.
“Universal Studios are incredible, but did they make a ton of money from the ‘Pitch Perfect’ movies? Yes,” Wilson said. “So despite me absolutely loving all those folks at Universal, did I use that leverage to my advantage? Yes.”
Although her original offer was not a small digit, sitting at $9 million, she decided to push a little and ask for some more compensation. She asked the studio if they would pay her $1 million more, not because she was greedy, but because she wanted to it represent something in her career.
“And in the 11th hour, I go, ‘You know, that’s a lovely offer of $9 million. But I need one more to make it 10.’ That’s a big milestone when you’re an actor. To receive an eight-figure offer, for a woman, is huge. Sometimes women don’t like to talk about that. Whereas I don’t think the guys have any issues saying they get $20 million a movie.”
Hitting the eight-figure salary mark is a significant achievement for any actor and Wilson understood this. She wanted to enjoy this opportunity and being only one number away from it seemed like a torment to her.
Rebel Wilson’s Success Came At the Price of Her Health
It would seem that during her time in the Pitch Perfect series, Rebel Wilson was forced to pursue an unrealistic standard for herself and her body. Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the actress recalled how when she signed onto the film, her contract had quite an odd condition.
“You can’t lose — I think it’s not more than 10 pounds or gain more than 10 pounds. You have to kind of stay at the weight. It’s in your contract,” she said at the time.
She was not allowed to lose or gain any weight, as a way to make sure that one of the main personality traits of her character stayed intact. One would assume that her agency would stand by her in such a situation, however, she revealed to be the opposite in her memoir.
Wilson writes in her new memoir that her agency “liked me fat because they got hundreds of thousands of dollars in commission for each film where I played the fat funny girl” , via Vanity Fair.
It would seem that Wilson’s agency also wanted her to maintain her weight as a way to make sure she got success in the industry.
