Aidy Bryant.Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Aidy Bryanthas no issue with calling herself “fat.”
“It is a descriptor and, like, I am fat,” Bryant, 33,told theWashington Post. “To me, it’s like taking the power out of it. It doesn’t have to be so loaded. It’s just true, and sitting with that, it makes it easier for me. It just feels a little less frightening.”
As the star of Hulu’sShrill, playing Annie Easton reclaiming the word “fat” comes up often. Easton is a columnist at an alt-weekly in Portland, Oregon, playing a character loosely based on writer Lindy West, and she’s shown dealing with athletic trainers who tell her to lose weight, or arguing with her mom about how she doesn’t need to be dieting.
Aidy Bryant in Shrill.hulu
“I never felt like I saw a fat person’s romantic life treated with any dignity on the screen,” she said. “That was one of the main reasons that one of the first scenes of the first episode is her having sex, and it’s normal, fine, like real sex. It’s not like mind blowing porn sex, It’s just pretty human, normal sex. That is a big part of a person’s relationship to their body and their identity, and so what we wanted to do, was show it with some respect.”
Aidy Bryant in Shrill.Hulu
Bryant said that she’s received an amazing response from fans of the show.
“I definitely assumed that young fat women would identify with it, but it’s really been a whole range of men, women, thin, fat,” she said. “People can relate to being really hard on themselves, being their own worst critic and being trapped in that mindset and wanting to get out of it. That is really universal.”
source: people.com
