Tammy actress Melissa McCarthy is launching a clothing line for plus-sized women, after finding the options available to her either too matronly or wildly inappropriate.
When she went to the Oscars for Bridesmaids in 2012, she said she had trouble finding a designer to make her a dress before finally going with a custom, blush-coloured gown by Marina Rinaldi.
“I got a lot of no’s,” she said. “Who knows, people could be busy, but it also could just be, ‘We don’t quite know what to do if you’re not a size 2 column that can wear a strapless dress,’ which I almost wish they would have said that.”
McCarthy uses her body in her humour. But having a female, plus-sized body has made the actress subject to particularly personal criticism, as when New York Observer critic Rex Reed called her “tractor-sized” in his Identity Thief review and dismissed McCarthy as a “gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success.”
McCarthy has said she doesn’t spend much time thinking about her critics, but there’s a scene in Tammy that’s revealing about the actress’ world view on the issue of appearances.
Tammy is getting cleaned up for a party, trading her T-shirt for a borrowed blouse and allowing someone to flat-iron her frizzy hair. It’s a subtle change, hardly the dramatic makeover montage that has become a trope of many comedies geared to women.
“I did not want a makeover scene,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t want her to be better because she suddenly looked a certain way... It’s not that if you were prettier you would be a better human. I talked to [costume designer] Wendy Chuck. I said, ‘If we give her a makeover it will hurt my heart. I just think that will imply that “Now she’s fixed.”’ There’s nothing wrong with her in that way.”
— Los Angeles Times