Busy Philipps Says She Was a Size 6 When Cast as the 'Fat Girl' in “White Chicks”

The actress recalled the toxic beauty standards of the late 90s and early 2000s

NEED TO KNOW

• Busy Philipps reflected on the toxic body image culture of the late ’90s and early 2000s in a series of posts on Instagram
• She said she was a size 6 to 8 when she played the “fat girl” in the movie White Chicks
• Philipps shared how public comments about her body after the movie showed it was a “f—ed up” time

Busy Philipps says she was between a size 6 and 8 when she was "cast as the fat girl in White Chicks," sharing that it was a "f—ed up" time.

The Dawson's Creek alum, 46, was inspired to look back on her own experiences with the toxic body image culture of the late '90s and early 2000s while watching the bombshell Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, which explores the entertainment industry's obsession with thinness. In a series of posts to her Instagram stories on March 22, Philipps said that the documentary was "really f—-ing upsetting to me," sharing that she watched America's Next Top Model when it originally aired.

"At the time, I didn't find it problematic because it was just, like, the way things were, and I was, like, in the entertainment industry as a young woman and was like, well, that's just the way things are. It's really f—ing upsetting," she said. "It's really f—king depressing. I'm gonna keep watching it."

She continued, saying, "I just feel like this is my moment to remind you that I was cast as the fat girl in White Chicks. That was my role," she said of the 2004 comedy starring Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans. "I was like between a size 6 and an 8 at the time. … yeah, it's f—-ed up, but yeah, like that time was f—-ed up guys. It was f—ed up."

After the film, when she was recognized, people would comment on her body: "Anytime people like would see me in public, post-White Chicks, and they'd be like, 'Oh damn, you're not — what happened to, you? You're so skinny now' and it's like, 'Yeah, no s–t.' "

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She said that the scene in the America's Next Top Model documentary where Keenyah Hill felt violated by a male model was emblematic of the time: "You were a woman, they're like, 'Well, it's your job. Your job is to figure it the f–k out, honey. I'm sorry you're uncomfortable.' "

Philipps went on to share that she covers what it was like "in the late 90s and early 2000s being a woman in television and the entertainment industry" in her 2018 memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little. "I was like one of the lucky ones, you know what I mean?" Philipps said. "Anyway, I'm obviously triggered."

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