Fat suits now offer actors binge-free extra poundage

USA Today

Some thin actors are hanging up their size-2 outfits to make room for the latest Hollywood fashion statement — fat suits.

The suits, a combination of padding and makeup, have become so realistic they are being used with increasing frequency in film and television, allowing actors to pack on the pounds without resorting to Twinkie binges.

• Julia Roberts dons a 60-pound fat suit in the romantic comedy "America's Sweethearts."
• Wiry Gwyneth Paltrow appears as a 350-pound woman in the November romantic comedy, "Shallow Hal."
• Martin Short plays overweight talk show host Jiminy Glick on Comedy Central's new "Primetime Glick."

"It's actually great because I can do falls. The fat suit is great protection," says Short, whose dimwitted chubby guy often tips over in his chair.

Not everyone finds humor in fat suits, saying they perpetuate stereotypes of large people as jolly or weak.

"It's really a shame because basically the industry is using fat suits in a very negative way," says Dawn McDowell of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. "By using fat suits, some filmmakers are trying to portray and get into the psyche of being fat. But movie writers and directors just don't get what it's like to be fat in this society."