‘Precious’ actress says other people may have a problem with her size, but she doesn’t.
Fans will find several things surprising about break-out star Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe. For one, although she portrays 16-year-old Precious Jones in the Oprah Winfrey-Tyler Perry indie film Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, Sidibe herself is 26. Second, the 350-pound-plus actress says she is comfortable in her body and feels no need to lose weight.
It’s a rare find in the age of 100-pound starlets like Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie. Richie, who topped the scales at just 130 pounds, was rumored by the New York Post’s Page Six to have had gastric bypass surgery to lose just 50 pounds, and then also to have had it reversed when she proved to be unable to gain any weight at all. Richie has denied the rumors.
Sidibe says choosing to be comfortable in her own body was simply a decision she had to come to. “I learned to love myself, because I sleep with myself every night and I wake up with myself every morning, and if I don’t like myself, there’s no reason to even live the life. I love the way I look. I’m fine with it. And if my body changes, I’ll be fine with that,” she tells New York Magazine.
The actress says at age 11 her aunt offered to pay for a cruise if the pre-teen would lose 50 pounds. And another friend once gave her some “helpful”–albeit unsolicited –advice for losing weight. She said, ”Every time you want to put something disgusting in your mouth, think of the designers who won’t make a dress for you because you’re fat,” Sidibe quotes her friend.
Sidibe told the Huffington Post that fame has also come with unwelcome criticism from outsiders as well. “Some of the negative stuff –things that have hurt my feelings, which I stopped reading –are when people comment on clothes that I’ve worn or whatever,” she says. “That’s weird, because it’s my own style and I’ve been dressing myself for a very long time and I wear clothes that fit me, things that I like.”
Precious opens November 6.
Stacey from NJ responded:
She doesn’t have a problem with her size!!?? That’s because she has a movie under her triple huge body belt. But she’ll be 150lbs lighter in a year!! Bet me!! And she NO PROBLEM with her weight! Watch!
Alex responded:
I agree! she well lose weight but then she’ll be critized for that too like Star Jones. Which totally fell off the radar now that she’s thin her fanbase didn’t like the change, I mean sure their are some people that do still like her but not like before. She made an image for herself and when that changed fans didn’t approve. I like Star Jones though and think she looks amazing. It’s hard to get famous and then change {roseanne, star jones and krisie Ally to name a few that changed and some that gained it back and looked stupid to the world} My advice would be, look how you want to be before you go to Hollywood, have the image you want to maintain throughout your career. Her best bet is to stay Obese cause then she’ll willn’t look like a lyer!!