Here's a blog post Nia Vardalos wrote for AC360 on CNN. It is perhaps one of the best things I've ever read about body image and health. I think I'm in love with Nia Vardalos! She rocks--I love her confidence in herself, her sense of humor and that she doesn't think it's a big deal that she lost weight. People magazine bikini shoot--no! It was about her health, not how she felt in her skin. I suspect Ms. Vardalos felt just as sexy before as she does now. Her view of her body before is refeshing and sadly unexpected in a world where the Teenage Witch uses cruel terms to describe her post-partum fuller figure and a Ghost Whisperer yells and screams about how dare the media criticize her size 2 figure, only to drop 20 lbs and pay for do a major publicity tour about her 'new fabulous figure' and how much better she feels about her body. Nia Vardalos never apologized for her body before and she isn't trashing it now~and to me that makes her a hero of sorts! Way to go girlfriend~if I'm ever lucky enough to meet you I'm totally buying you a diet coke drink!!!
Editor’s Note: Nia
Vardalos is the star and writer of the 2002 smash hit, “My Big Fat
Greek Wedding.” Her new film, “My Life in Ruins,” is in theaters now.
Actress Nia Vardalos arrives at the premiere of 'My Life in Ruins' on May 29, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.
Nia Vardalos
Actress/Writer/Director
It’s just weight. Just 40 pounds of fat now gone from my body, but
wow, it’s pretty much all I get asked about. In the last year, I got to
star in a movie, wrote and directed my next one, and adopted a three
year old from American Foster Care. But guess what I’m asked…how did I
lose the weight?
I am embarrassed to be in the position of answering questions about
my body again. On the publicity tour of ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ I
was asked over and over again, if, as the writer, I felt it was a fair
depiction of real life to have someone of my er, below average looks,
hook up with hottie John Corbett.
It’s been years, and I have sat through many a movie like Sideways,
where nobody blinks an eye when Paul Giamatti gets together with
gorgeous Virginia Madsen. And, then ‘Knocked Up’….well, the visual of
Seth Rogan on top of Katherine Heigl made me put the popcorn down and
reach for my purse. Not because I was grossed out but because I knew
the film was about to stop and Ashton Kutcher would now jump out and go
“aha, you’ve been punked, that would never happen.” I waited. But no
Ashton. The film went on. And many a reviewer, who probably look like
sweet Seth (yes even the women) gave it a thumbs up.
Yes, there’s a double standard for women. Whatever. Yawn, we all
know it, perpetuate it – we make it worse every time we buy a magazine
showing “Stars with Cellulite.” And women, we do buy those magazines.
Yes, we do. No, not just at the airport – you have a subscription,
admit it. So do I.
So, it’s our fault. Let’s accept it and move on. Socially, the issue
of men’s weight is simply not a big deal. Let’s face it: Russell Crowe
is fat and no one ever talks about it. Alec Baldwin just orders his
suits a size bigger and we continue to swoon.
So, what exactly is up with my weight loss? I get hit with this
awkward question daily and have answered it in press interviews, at the
grocery store, at the newspaper stand. Why? Because I see their
anxious, open faces needing the secret, the new pill, the cure,
anything. Just please share the secret. So I hesitantly answer and am
always met with the same response: the glaze-eye slack-jawed face.
Because they don’t want to hear the truth: I had a blood sugar
problem so my Doctor ordered me to lose weight, it was really hard but
I did it through diet, exercise and it took a year.
This is when the boredom sets in on the querying person. I might as
well just shove an Ambien up their nostril. The gleam in their eye
fades and they get sleepy.
No one wants to hear the facts about weight loss. It’s simple. Take
that bag of Doritos and throw it as far as you can. Now chase after it.
Pick it up, do it again.
Or don’t. You don’t have to lose weight, unless like me, it becomes
an issue of health. I thought I was attractive when I shot ‘My Big Fat
Greek Wedding.’ Studio executives and movie reviewers let me know I had
a confidence in my looks that was not shared by them. In other words:
they labeled me with words like, overweight, unattractive, unappealing.
Hey, just say fat. I love the word fat. I used it in the title. It’s
actually not a naughty word. We give it a power it actually doesn’t
have. So, you’re fat. Big deal.
If now, I have a sudden validity because I look different on the red carpet, check out my Before pics on my Twitter. (@NiaVardalos)
I am showing what happens before Team Miracle comes over in the Hazmat
suits and works on me for a few hours. Anyone can look like they make
me look. That’s why most malls offer a Glamour Shots booth.
I am just telling you the truth.
Here’s another fact: A studio executive recently asked me to change
a male lead in a script to female because “women don’t go to movies.”
He went on to explain some studios were no longer making female-lead
movies because women don’t go to them.
Wow. I pointed out ‘Sex And The City,’ ‘Mamma Mia,’ and ‘Obsessed,’ and he called them “flukes.”
He shrugged and explained he was just telling me the truth.
I wonder, is this the truth? Do we support female films? My film is
out now and Sandra Bullock’s film ‘The Proposal’ opens soon. (Gasp, is
she talking about a rival studio’s movie?) Yeah, I am. See it. See us
both (just see us first, we’re low budget.)
So, I ask, can we tell that studio executive the truth? That women
do go to the movies. Can we speak up with our wallets? Or did you doze
off?
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