Following a successful career in TV and theatre in her home country of Australia, bubbly comic Rebel Wilson burst onto our screens in some of the most beloved comedy classics in recent years.
Fans fell in love with her sarcastic charm in cult favourites Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect and saw her win a slew of MTV Movie and Teen Choice Awards along the way.
Despite facing some surprising backlash over her recent weight loss transformation, the superstar recently landed the coveted role as host of the upcoming 75th BAFTA Film Awards.
Let’s take a look at her life away from the glitz and glamour as she gets ready for her biggest hosting gig yet…
Drastic weight loss
(Image: Getty Images)
Declaring 2020 her “year of health,” The Aussie superstar told fans she’d be prioritising exercise and aiming to get down to her goal weight of 165 pounds.
Known for her curvaceous figure, the comedy actress, 41, lost a whopping 5.5stone over the course of the year after embracing the Mayr Method and documented her drastic transformation on social media.
Discussing her decision to lose weight and get healthier in 2020, Rebel said on the Uncut Podcast: “I’m turning 40 I knew I can be healthier… I’m gonna make the big change and lose the excess weight.”
(Image: Instagram)
Rebel detailed the changes in her life since dropping more than 70 pounds and explained that it has “opened doors” for her into dramatic acting.
She said: “It’s opened up dramatic roles which I wasn’t getting considered before, which is awesome so I can really use my acting muscle.”
In May, the Fat Pizza star candidly admitted to feeling “sad” that she’d waited until the age of 40 to embrace a healthier lifestyle.
“Now that I know I can do it, sometimes I feel sad that I didn’t do it earlier,” she told InStyle. “I have a natural empathy for anyone who struggles with weight issues because that’s something I’ve always struggled with.”
Transformation backlash
(Image: Instagram)
As one of Hollywood’s top comedy actors, Rebel recently spoke out saying her own team was opposed to her losing weight because she was “earning millions of dollars being the funny fat girl”.
“I got a lot of pushback from my own team actually, here in Hollywood, when I said, ‘OK, I’m going to do this year of health, I feel like I’m really going to physically transform and change my life’,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“And they were like, ‘Why? Why would you want to do that?’ Because I was earning millions of dollars being the funny fat girl and being that person.”
(Image: Rebel Wilson/Instagram)
She’s also been vocal about wanting people to focus on her career rather than her body.
“Is that what a woman has to do in the world, lose weight to get attention?” she said.
“It’s fascinating, why are people so obsessed with it? Like, with women in particular about their looks? I know what it’s like to be a woman who is essentially invisible to most people because of not being seen as traditionally beautiful or whatever.
“It’s crazy to try to fit that. It’s just better to be the healthiest version.”
Rebel also opened up about the positive changes of losing weight and how she has been treated differently since sporting a slimmer look.
She said: “Sometimes being bigger, people didn’t necessarily look twice at you. And now that I’m in a good shape, like, people offer to carry my groceries to the car and hold doors open for you. I was like, ‘Is this what other people experienced all the time?’”
Choosing comedy
(Image: Universal)
The actress admitted she chose comedy acting after she gained weight because it relies less on appearance to secure acting jobs.
Speaking about her health struggles before her dramatic weight loss, the blonde superstar admitted choosing the comedy acting route after suffering with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome that caused her to put on weight in her twenties.
She said: “I had something called polycystic ovary syndrome and one of the side effects is that you can gain weight rapidly when you’re 20/21.”
(Image: PA)
Rebel explained that “abnormalities” are often well regarded in comedians, as she explained: “Comedians often have something physical about them that’s abnormal.
“Those people tend to go better in comedy, so I turned what was turned into a lot of agents as a disadvantage into my advantage.”
Rebel said she chose to play Fat Amy in Pitch Perfect because although she wasn’t the lead character, she was the funniest role in the film.
She also said that even though she weighed “three times more” than her co-stars, they all still celebrated each other.
(Image: Getty Images for Academy Museum)
“So obviously I knew I was a bigger girl so I was like you just got to embrace it so that’s why I went into comedy acting because I knew how much power comedians can have, people are more likely to laugh at people they don’t want to have sex with,” she added.
Wilson added that her desire to be a mother is also helping to keep her on track. She has been undergoing retrieval processes to freeze her eggs.
“The healthier I am, the more chances I’ll have of having kids.
“Thinking of potential future children to be healthy for is an extra motivation.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
