Melissa McCarthy, star of the new movie "The Heat" alongside co-star Sandra Bullock, has had a successful career including an Oscar nod and an Emmy for her role on "Mike and Molly." Despite her success as a comedic actress, McCarthy routinely comes under fire for her weight and make her ripe for photoshop weight loss.
Last year, when her movie "Identity Thief" was reviewed by Rex Reed in The New York Observer, he called the actress "tractor-sized," a "female hippo" and said she was "a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success."
His comments quickly went viral sparking rage form the online community who supports McCarthy, arguing that a comedic actress' looks should not have anything to do with her likability. The co-star of the Oscar-nominated comedy "Bridesmaids" has become a beloved figure in the comedy world for her role as the foul-mouthed and strange Megan.
McCarthy isn't much for public squabbles, or breaking from her normal sunny demeanor in any way, but she did finally respond to the comments in an interview with The New York Times.
Her reaction to the piece was simply "Really?" she said. "Why would someone O.K. that?"
The Times reportsed, without mentioning Reed's name, McCarthy went on to say "I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate. I just thought, that's someone who's in a really bad spot, and I am in such a happy spot. I laugh my head off every day with my husband and my kids who are mooning me and singing me songs."
She did admit if this had happens when she was first starting out in her 20s, the comment may have "crushed" her. Today though, she feels being a mother has given her some perspective.
She commented on the negative impact of the comments from the perspective of a mother believing it makes raising her daughters more difficult in "a strange epidemic of body image and body dysmorphia," she said articles like that "just add to all those younger girls, that are not in a place in their life where they can say, 'That doesn't reflect on me.'"
McCarthy likely had more to say on the matter but before she could, the fire alarm in the restaurant her and her interviewer were in started going off.
"I imagine that's my publicist," she said jokingly. "The gods didn't want us discussing this."
Below is a trailer for McCarthy's new movie "The Heat."
