Beanie Feldstein stopped by the Variety After Show, presented by National Geographic, for a virtual chat about her new movie “How to Build a Girl.” She talks about having a lead role for the first time and putting on a English accent, but got serious talking about refusing to be typecast for her body size.
“The only thing I ever heard when I was younger, because I was chubby and I love to sing, was ‘Have you ever played Tracy Turnblad?’” she says, referencing the typically plus-size “Hairspray” character. “I love [“Hairspray”], but for some reason, I heard that so much growing up that it became a sore spot for me. Why can I only be this? I can be anything I want. What about the baker’s wife in ‘Into the Woods’? Or Winnifred in ‘Once Upon a Mattress’? Or one day, Amy in ‘Company’? What about all these other roles I would love to play, and why am I excluded from them because of my dress size or whatever it might be?”
Popular on Variety
Comments are moderated. They may be edited for clarity and reprinting in whole or in part in Variety publications.