How do overweight stage-musical actors maintain their weight?

[Speaker_for_the_Dead]

I’m thinking specifically about Hairspray, which I just watched on stage last night. It was wonderful! It’s so happy and energetic.

But that same energy–extended dance sequences, especially–seems like a fantastic workout. How does the actress who plays Tracy (or people in similar roles) maintain her weight with all that exercise? After all, her being heavy is important to the character.

[Quartz]

In the film, they wore fatsuits.

[Moirai]

While Travolta may have worn a fat suit as Edna (and this may have had more to do with creating big boobs on him), Nikki Blonsky certainly did not.

[Speaker_for_the_Dead]

Yeah, I can see that it would be different in the movie, since the level of exercise is different. But some of these actresses have played Tracy in show after show, night after night, which is a better workout regimen than I’ve ever had. Yet, when I go, she’s still obviously heavy enough for the audience to get it when Edna says “people like us are only on television to be made fun of.”

[Risha]

Some people have to work harder than others to get and stay thin. There are any number of people in the world that can do hard exercise three hours a day and still remain relatively overweight. They probably deliberately picked someone like that to play Tracy.

Alternatively or in addition, if the exercise involved gives her a lot of muscle, it would enhance the effect. Wardrobe can also deliberately make her look heavy without the use of a fat suit - the proverbial “fat pants”. Wearing slightly oversize or slightly overly loose clothes will also make you appear heavier.

The alternative, of course, would be for her to eat tons of calories, though that might make it tough for her to do that much exercise.

[Risha]

Hey, I found a cite! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one for the actresses who originated the role on Broadway (Marissa Janet Winokur) or played Tracy in the movie (Nikki Blonsky).

DM) Officially speaking, the show, Hairspray, is about this overweight girl who is going against the odds. You’re doing a hell of a workout that I know I couldn’t keep up with for that long.

KB) Well I did lose a lot of weight. I lost about 12 pounds. I gained it all back by going to a sports intuitionalist who helped me figure out how to keep my weight up. It’s weird because I have to do physical therapy.

DM) Why do you have to do physical therapy?

KB) Because I’m overweight and when you put that much pressure on your body and only get a three to five hours of sleep, your muscles don’t have the time to regenerate correctly. On top of doing the show, maintenance wise, I do physical therapy five times a week. I dance three hours a night and I also exercise before we even do the show. Normally athletes sleep eight or 10 hours a day and I don’t even get that. I have to train my body to be strong enough to do the dancing, plus, I have to maintain the weight for the role.

DM) Is that weight position under contract?

KB) It’s not under contract, but when I lost the 12 pounds, they freaked out.

DM) I also imagine that when you lost the weight, you were also converting fat to muscle and, therefore, even becoming slimmer.

KB) The funnier thing is, I have gained the weight back, but I’m even slimmer. So what I do, is eat three meals a day, plus I drink protein shakes, three times a day and each shake has 800 calories.

DM) You know this sounds kind of odd that you’re cursed with losing weight left and right.

KB) I’ve actually managed to keep my weight steady for the past few weeks. The funny thing is that I lost the weight that time in no time. I blinked and it was off my body. I gained it back quickly because I had two tablespoons of cashew butter everyday.

DM) When I saw you in Hairspray, you were playing the chubby teenage girl, but you looked pretty normal to me.

KB) It’s funny because, there are two things you have to remember. One, this is the entertainment business and I’m a size 12 petite. The average American woman is a size 10-12, so look at me; I’m your average-sized American woman, but in the entertainment business, I’m considered fat and obese. For a 16-year-old, I’m considered a chubby teenager. If I had this body as a teenager, which I did, I’d be considered chubby. It’s all how people see you. I was never that teenager who had no curves. I went from having no shape to having a woman’s body. I get that a lot; I come off stage and people say, “You’re not fat,” but they forget that I’m playing a 16-year-old and it’s also the entertainment business. I don’t consider myself to be a heavy person either, but the flip side of that is that I give overweight women a positive role model.

[Speaker_for_the_Dead]

Thank you! That’s literally exactly what I was wondering.