Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘Shallow Hal’ Body Double Nearly ‘Starved to Death’

Gwyneth Paltrow’s physique double in Shallow Hal cherished being within the movie — till the body-shaming from critics almost value her her life.

Ivy Snitzer, who stood in for Paltrow in some scenes the place Paltrow’s character was proven in her bigger physique, was initially excited to be forged within the 2001 comedy, she advised The Guardian in an interview printed on Tuesday, August 22. (The film — which additionally featured Paltrow, now 50, carrying a fats swimsuit, additionally starred Jack Black as Hal, a person who will get hypnotized into seeing inside magnificence in individuals no matter their physique sort.)

“At that time, if you happen to noticed somebody overweight in a film, they have been a villain,” Snitzer, 42, advised the outlet, explaining that Paltrow’s character, Rosemary, was the other. She “was cool, she was common, she had buddies.”

Snitzer referred to as the entire undertaking “thrilling,” explaining that the forged and crew “handled me like I actually mattered, like they couldn’t make the film with out me.” Paltrow was “very nice,” she added, and Black, now 53, was “a pleasant individual.”

Whereas filming itself was a constructive expertise, every little thing modified as soon as the film hit theaters. “It was just like the worst elements about being fats have been magnified. And nobody was telling me I used to be humorous,” Snitzer defined, including that she acquired an onslaught of undesirable consideration after the favored film’s launch.

Lower than two years later, Snitzer underwent gastric band surgical procedure — an operation that left her extraordinarily sick after she developed “a torsion – like canines get after which die.”

The actress was “technically ravenous to dying,” she advised The Guardian, including that she was “so skinny you might see my tooth by way of my face and my pores and skin was all grey.”

Snitzer was blunt when she defined her purpose for getting the surgical procedure. “As a result of I used to be imagined to! If you happen to’re fats, you’re imagined to attempt to not be.”

Although she didn’t initially join her choice to get the process completed to the criticism she acquired after Shallow Hal’s launch, she finally got here to phrases with the rationale she received the gastric band.

“I’m certain it was [due to the body-shaming from the public] … I’m certain I needed to be small and never seen,” she shared. “I’m certain that’s there, however I don’t ever keep in mind consciously desirous about it.”

Paltrow has additionally been candid concerning the problematic film, which she later referred to as a “catastrophe” in her personal interview with The Guardian in 2020.

“The primary day I attempted the fats swimsuit on, I used to be within the Tribeca Grand and I walked by way of the foyer. It was so unhappy,” the Goop founder recalled. “It was so disturbing. Nobody would make eye contact with me as a result of I used to be overweight. I felt humiliated.”