Gwyneth Paltrow's Shallow Hal body double reveals she had eating disorders post film

Most movie stars have their body doubles do the actual heavy lifting in movies that demand a lot physically – be it action sequences, weight changes or other things. In the case of Gwyneth Paltrow, her body double actress Ivy Snitzer opened up about the impact of the 2001 film Shallow Hal on her mental and physical health. In the film, Jack Black’s character Hal gets hypnotised to see a person’s inner beauty, causing him to fall in love with Gwyneth’s character, Rosemary in the film. Without the hypnosis, Rosemary is overweight.

Gwyneth Paltrow did not put on weight for the role. For scenes featuring her, she wore a body suit while the then 20-year-old Ivy Snitzer was used for closeups of the character’s body. While she enjoyed her time on the sets of Shallow Hal, Snitzer is opening up on how she felt once the filming got over.

Filming Shallow Hal was fun for Gwyneth's body double

In a recent interview, the former actress said, "It was just fun to be part of a movie, there are so few people who actually get to do that. At that point, if you saw someone obese in a movie, they were a villain. [Rosemary] was cool, she was popular, she had friends."

It was post the film that problems started

She said she started being called a “good fatty” post the film and “hated” her body. “I ate a lot of salads. I had eating disorders that I was very proud of,” saidSnitzer, who struggled with eating disorders as a teen.

“While making the movie was fun, it didn't occur to me that the film would be seen by millions of people. It was like the worst parts about being fat were magnified. And no one was telling me I was funny,” she admitted. In order to lose weight post the film, she decided to get gastric band surgery. However, shortly after the procedure, the band slipped. She said the recovery process almost killed her, as she was only able to consume "sports drinks and watered-down nutritional shakes" for three months.

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