LOS ANGELES — The women of "Hairspray” are a rarity in fat-phobic Hollywood, whose obsession with willowy women is so strong the idea of a corpulent heroine is almost unheard of.
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The new big-screen musical, with lyrics that include a line about women's "extra large largesse” shining through, debuted July 20. The filmmakers hope it will help open moviegoers' minds to the notion that people of ample proportions deserve their Hollywood close-ups.
Curvier women such as Mae West, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell were far more common in old Hollywood, but the outright portly like "Hairspray” lead character Tracy Turnblad have hardly ever gotten their day as lead characters.
"Growing up, all I saw were the really thin actors and pop singers of the world. Everybody was so thin and tall and blond and everything I was not,” said Nikki Blonsky, the hefty 4-foot-10-inch newcomer who plays Tracy. "Do I have to be like them to make it into the business? I thought, ‘No, I'm going to find a way to make it in just as somebody different.'
"I think that's what I'm really trying to accomplish here, and that's why I'm so excited to have the movie open and show these little kids out there who may be thinking like I was, ‘Oh God, all I see are these thin girls. Do I have to be like them?' No, you don't.”
The movie is based on the Broadway musical about teenager Tracy, a plump sweetheart who sets out to appear on a 1960s TV dance program in Baltimore and ends up leading a fight to integrate the show.
The stage musical in turn was based on John Waters' 1988 cult flick, which put then-pudgy Ricki Lake, the original Tracy Turnblad, on the road to stardom. Marissa Jaret Winokur won a Tony for originating the role of Tracy on Broadway.
"It's going to have made three young girls a big star. Three fat girls. That's even greater,” Waters said. "I've had good luck with fat girls. Just call me Jack Sprat. ...
"I always thought a big girl, every outsider could identify with that. Everyone feels like an outsider nowadays, so I thought everyone could identify with Tracy. She makes people feel good about themselves, no matter what they look like.”
"Hairspray” producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said they hope "Hairspray” helps inch people toward greater acceptance of overweight people but that thin will continue to rule in Hollywood.
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