REBEL WILSON’S ON the promo circuit for her upcoming romantic comedy, ‘Isn’t It Romantic’, in which she has a leading role. Fair play to her.
In it, she plays Natalie, a down-on-her-luck New Yorker who wakes up to find herself trapped inside a romantic comedy and caught between two love interests (played by Adam DeVine and Liam Hemsworth).
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She appeared on Ellen’s Halloween special, dressed as Wilson from Castaway, to talk about her upcoming role in the movie.
“I had such a ball filming that,” she told Ellen on the film, which is due out on Valentine’s Day next year.
I’m proud to be the first-ever plus-sized girl to be the star of a romantic comedy.”
Is she though?
Twitter users were quick to pull her up on her comment. While she may have wanted to celebrate her involvement in a film which rejects Hollywood tropes about plus-size women, she’s not the first to do it.
In 2006, Queen Latifah starred in the romantic comedy, ‘Last Holiday’. Despite the film gaining mixed reviews, her performance was praised for due to her charm and wit. Notably, she took over the role from John Candy after his untimely death.
Prior to that, she starred in 2004′s ‘Taxi’ co-starring alongside Jimmy Fallon.
Then there’s Mo’nique.
She’s probably best known for her Oscar-winning role in ‘Precious’. Prior to that, however, she starred in 2006′s ‘Phat Girlz’ (although its worth noting that the film was panned by critics and would never be made in this day and age.)
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Rebel can be proud of what’s she accomplishing and acknowledge how significant this kind of representation is. However, that doesn’t give her permission to discredit the black women who’ve paved the way before her to little fanfare.
