While Gwyneth wore a fat suit and prosthetics in the film, then-20-year-old Ivy Snitzer was used to provide footage of close-up shots of Rosemary's arms, torso and thighs.
- Aug 24, 2023
AceShowbiz - Gwyneth Paltrow's body double in "Shallow Hal" has opened up about the unpleasant effect of filming the movie. In an interview with The Guardian, Ivy Snitzer claimed she developed an eating disorder after working on the flick.
For the record, the 2001 film narrates about a "shallow" guy named Hal (Jack Black) who gets hypnotized into only being able to see women's inner beauty. He ends up falling in love with Gwyneth's Rosemary, who is overweight.
Gwyneth wore a fat suit and prosthetics in the film. As for Ivy, who was 20 years old at that time, she was used to provide footage of close-up shots of Rosemary's arms, torso and thighs.
"It didn't occur to me that the film would be seen by millions of people," Ivy said. "It was like the worst parts about being fat were magnified. And no one was telling me I was funny. It is not the worst thing in the world to be fat. I got really scared."
Claiming that she was accused of promoting obesity by saying that "it's not the worst thing in the world to be fat" in an interview, Ivy said she was even sent "diet pills" by someone. "I was like: maybe I'm done with the concept of fame, maybe I don't want to be an actor. Maybe I'll do something else. I just want to make people laugh; I don't want to make people sad," she shared.
"Before, I had to fight really hard to be seen as a personality and not just my size. I wasn't body positive, because it didn't really exist that way. I was kind of 'me positive,' because I was like: I'm funny, that's good enough! ... I hated my body the way I was supposed to. I ate a lot of salads. I had eating disorders that I was very proud of.
Though the film itself didn't make her feel bad about herself, Ivy said she ended up "technically starving to death." She recalled, "I was so thin you could see my teeth through my face and my skin was all gray... I kind of alienated a lot of my friends. My mother was also dying; it was bleak. Humans shouldn't have to experience how very bleak that particular time in my life was."
As for Gwyneth, she admitted to W Magazine that she felt "humiliated" wearing a fat suit for "Shallow Hal". She said, "The first day I tried [the fat suit] on, I was in the Tribeca Grand and I walked through the lobby. It was so sad; it was so disturbing. No one would make eye contact with me because I was obese... I felt humiliated because people were really dismissive."
