She is contractually obliged to lose weight for her role on This Is Us.
But exactly how – and how much – is completely up to Chrissy Metz, the show’s creator has confirmed.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Dan Fogelman said how the writers handle her character Kate’s weight loss will be dependent on how Chrissy herself does, and that she has no target weight in her contract.
Her call: While she is contractually obliged to lose weight for her role on This Is Us, exactly how – and how much – is completely up to Chrissy Metz, the show’s creator has confirmed
‘Thus far, the plan we had for the character and what Chrissy’s been doing have been working in tandem, with a talk once a year of, like, “Hey, here’s what we’re thinking”, he said.
‘So we have a general long-term plan that we’ve all talked about, and we will adjust the plan as needed. I mean, that’s life, right?’
Metz told the magazine she was down to her last 81 cents in the bank and surviving on dollar store ramen noodles when the potentially life-changing role was narrowed to the final two candidates.
‘The other actress was a sort of “Hollywood overweight person”, struggling with losing, maybe, 20 pounds,’ NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke said.
Moving target: Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Dan Fogelman said how the writers handle her character Kate’s weight loss will be dependent on how Chrissy herself does, and that she has no target weight in her contract
But Metz was desperate to land the role, insisting she and Kate were one and the same.
tight: Metz told the magazine she was down to her last 81 cents in the bank and surviving on dollar store ramen noodles when the potentially life-changing role was narrowed to the final two candidates.
‘Here was this woman who was actually dealing with weight. Not like, “Oh my God, I gained a pound”,’ she said.
‘She was a real woman who was really struggling, and all I could think was, “Oh my God, I’m Kate.”
‘I remember reading those lines like, “I’m always going to be afraid of a chair breaking underneath me” or “whether people will be able to recognize if I’m actually pregnant,” and going to Dan, in tears, like, “These are my fears,” she revealed.
Last November, Chrissy defended the show’s creators following backlash online at the revelation her contract insisted she lose weight.
‘Like most actors, we are chameleons so we play different roles; like Christian Bale lost all that weight for The Machinist,’ she told Ellen DeGeneres.
‘So I was like “oh, I hope I get to lose weight!” Because that’s like a win-win for me…motivated in a different way this time.’
However she insisted: ‘But it wasn’t mandated. It wasn’t like “you have to do this.”
Meant for: But Metz was desperate to land the role, insisting she and Kate were one and the same