When the pandemic hit, 41-year-old Rebel Wilson was one of the many people who decided it was time for a lifestyle change. The actress shared in a recent interview that she didn’t necessarily predict COVID-19, but something inside told her that she might have some more free time in 2020, making it the perfect year to implement some healthier habits.
Chatting with BBC News, she opened up about her journey. “Turning 40, I felt like I was going to concentrate on my health, and I was dealing with fertility stuff. The doctors told me that if I was healthier I’d have better chances, and that all kind of culminated into the moment it hit 2020 when I was like ‘this will be my year of health.’”
The Australian shared that she decided to publicly post about her journey on Instagram to keep her accountable to making a lasting change in her life, admitting that it felt like a “risky” decision. She then went on to discuss how her management team reacted to her over 77-pound weight loss.
“I got a lot of pushback from my own team, actually, here in Hollywood,” she told the host. “I said that I’m going to do this year of health and I feel like I’m really going to physically transform and change my life and they were like, ‘why? why would you want to do that?’ because I was earning millions of dollars being, you know, the funny fat girl.”
Wilson recalled how she was still confident when she was bigger, priding herself in her ability to “rock a red carpet, even though [she] was double, or sometimes triple the size of other actresses.” She continued, “I knew deep down inside that some of the emotional eating behaviours I was doing were not healthy – I did not need a tub of ice cream every night, that was, you know, numbing emotions using food.”
When asked if she indulged in overeating to deal with fame, the How To Be Single star said, “I think it was dealing with not being a natural performer, and having to perform everyday, and just things that I hadn’t kind of dealt with in my life that was manifesting as emotional eating.”
At the end of the clip, Wilson touches on how different her experience has been living in a larger body, and now, living in a smaller one. “I know what it’s like when nobody holds the door open for you, or you know, just looks at you as if you can have no value because you’re just not seen as good looking to them… You really learn that you get this bias towards you because of your appearance, it’s wrong.”
Check out the full interview below.
[Via]