‘This Is Us’ Star Chrissy Metz Reveals Why Hollywood Won’t Cast Plus Size Women

Chrissy Metz was often told she wouldn’t be able to achieve success in Hollywood and very likely would find it near impossible to get cast in much of anything all due to her weight, but, much like other plus size entertainers and models, Metz didn’t listen to the naysayers in her life. Eventually, she would find success on American Horror Story and, more recently, on This is Us as Kate Pearson, but Chrissy now shares that even gaining that measure of success has been an uphill battle and an educational experience. The This is Us actress opens up about being a plus size woman facing a society that prizes thin, toned bodies above all else.

This Is Us Star Chrissy Metz On Being Too Beautiful For Her Size

In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, This is Us actress Chrissy Metz shares that pursuing her career as an actress in Hollywood has very often been like running up against a brick wall. Chrissy says she heard the same thing from agents and producers all over Hollywood and that was that she was just too big to make it in show business. Metz also says she was told she was just too pretty for a plus size actress. Hollywood doesn’t believe an overweight woman can be beautiful, says the This is Us star.

Metz says Hollywood directors and producers feel “plus-size women can’t be attractive because nobody wants to be intimate or love a plus-size woman or a plus-size guy.”

It has been slow going and, until she got her big break in American Horror Story for their “Freak Show” season, it seemed Metz would have to accept a lifetime of television guest appearances and random bit parts in other stars’ feature films. Now, Chrissy has become a fan favorite on the breakaway hit, This is Us, and she can finally look back on her struggle with a critical eye.

Chrissy says the problem isn’t Hollywood’s alone to bear. She says plus size women are often disrespected and held to a lower standard in many other circumstances. Even dating is a test of one’s self-esteem, says the This is Us actress.

“Plus-size women or plus-size people have always been the butt of the joke,” Metz said. “Because there are men… I know men personally who don’t want to publicly date plus-size women, but they’re like, secretly in love with them.”

Chrissy Metz And Her This Is Us Character Have A Special Bond

Metz may have finally reached a point where she feels more confident and able to attract men who aren’t ashamed to date her, but she tells People that she understands Kate Pearson’s struggle and does still want to lose weight. Ironically, Chrissy feels she owes something to her obesity, because it gave her the This is Us opportunity for which she has become known.

“You have to use what you have and I wouldn’t have this role if I had already lost weight,” says Metz. “Now it’s about telling a story of a woman struggling with her weight, just as I have and still am.”

Playing Kate on This is Us hasn’t come to Chrissy unconditionally. Even her fans have found it questionable that Metz was required to sign a contract that included a claus requiring her to lose weight to parallel Kate Pearson’s weight loss journey within the series. The contract with NBC doesn’t stipulate just how Metz is required to drop the pounds, however, so rumors of forced surgery and mandated workout regiments are baseless.

While Chrissy Metz has seen the gossip on the internet with her This is Us fans interested to know how she plans to lose the weight, Metz says she has ruled out surgery. She doesn’t just want to be thinner; she wants to be healthy, too.

“I do want to lose weight,” the This is Us star says. “I want to have a fit, healthy body and not have to be put in a box. I don’t want to be limited by anything.”

The next episode of This is Us airs on Tuesday, February 14 on NBC.

[Featured Image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]