Whoopi Goldberg says she didn't wear a 'fat suit' for 'Till,' correcting a reviewer

CNN  — 

Whoopi Goldberg is correcting the grounds aft a reappraisal of her caller film, “Till,” purported that Goldberg was wearing a abdominous suit during filming.

In a mixed review, a Daily Beast newsman mentions Goldberg lone once, penning that Goldberg was “in a distracting abdominous suit” for her relation arsenic Emmett Till’s grandmother. The review has since been edited to omit that enactment and features an editor’s note.

“I don’t truly attraction however you felt astir the movie, but you should cognize that was not a abdominous suit,” Goldberg said connected Monday’s occurrence of “The View.” “That was me. That was steroids.”

Goldberg was referring to the wellness challenges she experienced past year with sciatica, a benignant of nervus pain, for which she was hospitalized and started utilizing a walker. She said connected “The View” that astatine the time, she was taking steroids, which tin beryllium utilized to dainty sciatica symptoms.

“It’s OK to not beryllium a instrumentality of the movie, but you privation to permission people’s looks out,” Goldberg said.

It’s not uncommon for a fashionable and awarded histrion successful a prestigious movie to deterioration a abdominous suit, though. Plenty of stars person donned abdominous suits, sometimes successful demeaning ways. From Gwyneth Paltrow arsenic an obese pistillate successful 2001’s “Shallow Hal” to Sarah Paulson arsenic Linda Tripp in past year’s “American Crime Story: Impeachment,” the actors wrong the abdominous suits are often not fat. Men, too, person worn abdominous suits, mostly successful comedic roles, including John Travolta successful “Hairspray,” Ryan Reynolds successful “Just Friends” and Eddie Murphy successful “Norbit.”

This twelvemonth unsocial has seen a surge of celebrated actors wearing abdominous suits: Renée Zellweger successful “The Thing About Pam” and Tom Hanks successful “Elvis” are 2 examples of Oscar winners who person worn abdominous suits for roles. Emma Thompson wears 1 successful the philharmonic adaptation of “Matilda” owed retired aboriginal this year, and successful the awards play conveyance “The Whale,” Brendan Fraser plays an obese antheral astatine the extremity of his beingness nether respective pounds of prostheses.

Viewers often knock the practice, peculiarly erstwhile a filmmaker chooses not to formed an histrion whose assemblage benignant already matches that of the character. In a caller interrogation with the New York Times, retired prof and media researcher J. Kevin Thompson said that uses of abdominous suits successful media – peculiarly erstwhile the characters portrayed by actors successful abdominous suits are made amusive of oregon portrayed successful an unflattering airy – tin beryllium psychologically damaging to viewers and that women disproportionately incur astir of that damage.

“These roles were astir often associated with ‘humor,’ which, of course, mightiness not beryllium truthful comic if 1 were the butt of the joke,” Thompson told the Times.

For its part, “Till” ostensibly does not diagnostic actors successful abdominous suits. The film, which focuses connected Mamie Till’s activism and her contributions to the civilian rights question aft the execution of her son, Emmett, volition beryllium released connected October 14.