How Weight Changes Can Affect Your Career (And What To Do About It!)

Let’s talk about weight, especially for actors. Open any lifestyle magazine, and you’ll find at least one article on celebrity diet tips, fitness tutorials to replicate or before and after picture comparisons. It makes it seem like weight changes in the entertainment industry are no big deal… but that’s not the case. (I mean, the fact that an artist’s weight is news at all is a whole other issue! But that’s another blog 😉

The simple truth is that, as an actor, changes to your body can affect more than your health; they can impact your career too. You may find yourself picking up more or less auditions, your casting category could change, and your agent may say they’re suddenly having a confusing time finding a role right for you. 

Before you start to stress about how you’re going to keep everyone happy, check out my advice on how to handle this health and happiness “crisis”. 

How Weight Changes Can Affect Your Career

There are many studies out there about how being overweight can affect a person’s ability to get a job, a promotion or even be taken seriously at work. But did you know that the same can be true when you lose weight? 

When actress Rebel Wilson decided she wanted to get her emotional eating habits under control, she ended up dropping over 75 pounds in the process. She dedicated a “Year of Health”, implementing consistent small changes to improve her own relationship with her body and her mental health practices. Ah yes, great minds think alike, ha! With her busy schedule, she “leaned on self-care rituals like massages and facials to help her stay on track,” and made sure she got plenty of rest.   

The public seemed to be cheering her on, but despite her personal success, Rebel shared that her management wasn’t too pleased with the changes: “They questioned, ‘Why would you wanna do that?‘ Because I was earning millions of dollars being the funny fat girl and being that person.”

There is so much pressure on artists, trying to mold us into a specific type—telling us what we should do, what we “absolutely must do!”, and what we better not do on penalty of being crossed off the list forever. Yet, we’re also told constantly that we have to stand out in the crowd. 

And in Rebel’s case, she lost weight for herself, for her own sense of self and health—and it wasn’t necessarily rewarded. Yet when an actor’s weight changes for a role, say Tom Hanks in Philadelphia or Charlize Theron in Monster, it’s ground-breaking and dedication. Just as long as they “go back to normal” afterwards.

I mean for real, it makes me dizzy. How about you? 

How To Handle Weight Changes

You can see how it is easy for an actor (or anyone in the world exposed to the media for that matter!) to try and conform to what they think they should look or act like. But let me tell you—YOU are not a pretzel! 

And since the industry will literally tear you down either way, my best advice is you do YOU! 

Every body is unique, so do what feels right for you because at the end of the day, your body is the only thing you’ll have your whole life. You have to take care of it, and only you know what’s best for it. It’s about taking real care of yourself and feeling good in the skin you are in. And that may not look like anyone else!

Liv Tyler stood her ground, choosing what felt right for her over potential roles and money: “I’ve been told that if I lose weight, I’d have more work, but I refuse to submit myself to Hollywood standards… I like the way I am.” And straight up, we love the way she is too! Happy in the skin she is in. Done and done. 

Katie Sturino, Founder of Megababe and the author of Body Talk: How to Embrace Your Body and Start Living Your Best Life, has been using her platform to fight back at unrealistic body standards and negative marketing tactics. She often recreates celebrity outfits to show that fab plus size fashion is possible and calls for designers to #MakeMySize and be more inclusive. 

In particular, she recently commented on a New York Post article about Adele’s weight loss “thankfully” not affecting her famous voice. [insert big effing eyeroll] Adele is one of the most celebrated and successful artists right now, and since losing weight, every mention of her gets reduced to numbers on the scale. It’s ridiculous.

What would happen if we just ignored people’s bodies and focused on what they contribute to the world instead? And that’s what I want you to do this week, my friend! 

I’m not saying throw all your healthy habits out the window in the name of revolution. But I challenge you this month to focus less on what other people want you to be and more on what YOU want to be, how you want to feel every day, what fuels your body, what inspires your spirit and your creativity. 

And as Rebel shared, “​​Any steps that you take towards having better health is a plus.” 

I know this topic can feel very triggering for so many people, and I’d love to hear your thoughts—so please share in the comments!

LOVE + real talk!