In recent years, Rebel Wilson has been outspoken about her experience with her body image and weight loss. But it turns out, the reason she decided to lose weight when she did was because she was contractually forbidden from doing so earlier. Wilson said that her contract for the Pitch Perfect movies meant that she couldn’t gain or lose more than 10 pounds while she was acting in the musical franchise.
Wilson opened up on a new episode of the podcast Call Her Daddy, explaining why she made the decision to lose weight, and the role her career played in the change. Read on to see what she had to say.
READ THIS NEXT: Charlize Theron Says a Producer Once Called Her at 3 a.m. to Say She Was “Fat and Ugly.”
Wilson’s Hollywood career took off in the early 2010s. She appeared in the comedy Bridesmaids in 2011, and then began playing Patricia “Fat Amy” Hobart in Pitch Perfect in 2012. The movie was followed by two sequels, which were released in 2015 and 2017.
On the Call Her Daddy podcast, Wilson said that she was sent the script for the first movie by writer Kay Cannon, who told her she hoped Wilson wasn’t offended that the part was called Fat Amy.
After reading the script, Wilson said, “Fat Amy, I think, is the best character in the whole movie.” She added, “I loved playing her so much … She’s just so confident.”
Wilson, who said she gained around 100 pounds in college due to polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), explained that she had to wait until after Pitch Perfect to lose weight.
“I did wait until Pitch Perfect seemed like it was over. I couldn’t lose a massive amount of weight, because I was in the contracts for that movie,” the 42-year-old explained. “You can’t lose—I think it’s not more than 10 pounds or gain more than 10 pounds. You have to kind of stay at the weight. It’s in your contract.”
Best Life reached out to Universal Pictures for comment, but has not yet heard back.
READ THIS NEXT: Baywatch Star Slams Critics Who Say She’s “Too Old” for Bikini Pics.
Wilson wanted to make a change in her life, but knew that it would affect her career and the roles that she was offered.
“I had been thinking for a while, like, I wanted to get healthier,” the Australian actor said. “I was stereotyped in playing that fat, funny friend, which is so hard because I love those roles. I love doing the roles. I love those characters. But then I did want to do more things, but I felt like being the bigger girl, you’re just more pigeonholed.”
Wilson explained that the change in her life came about because she wanted to have a baby, and a doctor encouraged her to be “healthier.”
“I was approaching 40—and really it came down to a fertility thing,” she said, adding that a doctor said, “You’d have a much better chance with fertility if you were healthier.”
This made Wilson feel conflicted because she was confident in her body, “and then I’ve got this stranger saying, ‘Yeah, but you’re not healthy.'”
She added, “It really hit me hard because I was living a fantastic bigger life. Didn’t have any serious diseases or anything … That made me re-examine. If I think about it, I’ve been doing things that aren’t healthy.”
For more celebrity news delivered right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
In a 2022 interview with People, Wilson talked about the doctor suggesting she lose weight. The situation occurred in 2019 when Wilson was interested in freezing her eggs.
“He looked me up and down and said, ‘You’d do much better if you were healthier,'” she explained. “I was taken aback. I thought, ‘Oh God, this’s guy’s so rude.’ He was right. I was carrying around a lot of excess weight. It’s almost like I didn’t think of my own needs. I thought of a future child’s needs that really inspired me to get healthier.”
A few years later, Wilson welcomed that future child. Wilson’s daughter, Royce, was born in Nov. 2022 via surrogate, as she announced on Instagram.