Actress Gabourey Sidibe has
responded to critics who fat shamed her after she appeared in a love scene
during Wednesday’s episode of Empire.
The 32-year-old actress was
seen on the show alongside her character Becky Williams’ love interest MC J
Poppa – played by actor Mo McRae – in an opening scene that featured the two
enjoying an intimate moment on a rooftop.
But after the episode aired,
the Oscar-nominated actress found herself to be the subject of cruel taunts
online, one social media user even created a meme that used a screen shot of
the love scene next to the words: ‘Damn, some of you people can’t even get a
text back’
The meme appeared to imply
that it was somehow surprising that Gabourey’s character could attract the
attention – and the lust – of someone like MC J Poppa.
Some commenters on the posts
added to the hate, writing things like ‘yuck’ and ‘now they’ve gone too far’
about the episode.
But in a blog for EW on
Thursday, the actress took the critics head on, saying that not only was she
proud of the scene, but didn’t care in the least about anyone having a problem
with it.
‘I, a plus sized, dark-skinned
woman, had a love scene on primetime television,’ she wrote. I had the most fun
ever filming that scene even though I was nervous. But I felt sexy and
beautiful and I felt like I was doing a good job.
I’m very proud of the work we
all did to make that scene a great opening for the episode. I keep hearing that
people are “hating” on it. I’m not sure how anyone could hate on love but
that’s okay. You may have your memes.’
She added: ‘Honestly, I’m at
work too busy to check Twitter anyway. #Booked. Hope you enjoy next week’s
show!’
Plenty of fans also came to
the actresses defense, with one writing: ‘People are just mean. All I see is
two people in love, do y’all really think big girls cannot get some action?’
Many of Gabourey’s cast mates
on Empire also praised her for the scene. Co-star Jussie Smollett, who plays
Jamal Lyon on the show, called it ‘beautiful’ and praised Gabourey for ‘owning
herself’ and when told about the negative comments, said the critics should
just close their eyes and turn off their TVs if they have a problem.
‘I wanted to see it, and
millions of other people wanted to see it,’ Jussie told E! Online. ‘I don’
know, those people don’t matter to me, to her, to anybody else.’
It’s not the first time the
actress has spoken out in defense of her shape against fat-shamers. In fact,
the star was equally sassy when trolls took to social media to criticize her
over the dress she wore to the Golden Globes last year, with some of the
mean-spirited comments comparing her to a condom or ‘the chubby ghost from
Casper’.
‘To people making mean
comments about my GG pics, I mos def cried about it on that private jet on my
way to my dream job last night. #JK,’ Gabourey confidently replied on Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment