“Too fat, too immobile, just a fat pig” – what multi-weight actresses have to listen to is just not possible. For a long time they were only seen in supporting roles. “Tatort” actress Stefanie Reinsperger can sing a song about why this urgently needs to change.
If you ask people if other people have commented on their appearance without being asked, then many could probably tell something. Maybe it was your own parents. Or a colleague brought a stupid saying. This is particularly true of people in the public eye. Stefanie Reinsperger knows that. The Austrian is one of the actresses who are particularly celebrated and often portrayed. The 34-year-old was recently seen as Rosa Herzog in Dortmund’s “Tatort”. She regularly plays at the Berliner Ensemble, for example in “Theatermacher”. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” once called her the “biggest power actress on the German-speaking stages”.
Reinsperger published a book last year. In “Pretty Angry” she deals with anger, with growing up, with patriarchy, with the theatre. And with the experiences she made when people felt they had to comment on their appearance.
Reinsperger told the German Press Agency that she had already received hate comments online on platforms. “That I’m too big, too fat to play certain roles; that I can’t move at all; that I’m a fat pig that needs to be stabbed.” Sometimes this is also packaged in autograph requests that are sent to her agency. There are also people on the street who insult you.
A scene in the book takes place in the swimming pool. Reinsperger is there with friends when a bather speaks to them. A nice conversation at first, the man said she was missed here in Vienna. In the end, however, he said: “Oba know what I eana scho imma moi sogn woit: The dress that you do onghobbed in Soizburg at the “Jedermann”. Do homs really looked impossible. The hot eana doesn’t fit . I don’t understand why you said something like that, hom. That you weren’t ashamed.” Reading such scenes can leave you speechless and angry.
Meeting Reinsperger can give you courage. “I’ve learned that I’ve spent too much time worrying about the people who say things like that and not enough about myself,” she says. “Fortunately, I’m a little further along. What’s important to me, also in this book, is to draw attention to the fact that so many people in our society still have to put up with it.” “Let’s develop an awareness of this and, above all, let’s work to stop it,” says Reinsperger.
In her opinion, more needs to change in the film and television world as well. “Often, overweight people get stuck in the sidekick figure – such as the overweight, funny girlfriend. Or it’s the story: “You are overweight and lose weight completely and then you found a man,” says Reinsperger. “But why are overweight women allowed not also play the rom coms and be the title character of a poster campaign for a series?”
A question that, for example, actress Franziska Troegner (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”) has asked before. She was often offered the role of the cook or the girlfriend of the leading role. “Never a doctor or a lawyer, just their assistant,” she said a few years ago. US star Melissa McCarthy was also known for such a role. In “Gilmore Girls” she played Sookie, the protagonist’s chef and friend.
McCarthy has long since been seen in other roles. And there are also examples in film history that ended differently. Incidentally, the example of “Bridget Jones” is only of limited use in Reinsperger’s opinion. The figure shaped a whole generation of women to think: “She’s overweight, she’s fat, she’s clumsy – and yet she finds love, yet two incredibly attractive men are interested in her.” “In my youth, that was at least the first time a person I had to identify with,” says Reinsperger. Actress Renée Zellweger had gained weight for the role. “I think: ‘Own someone who already has it and plays really well.’
In any case, Reinsperger observes changes in screenplays. “I personally notice that the description of the purely external is omitted, because it’s supposed to be about us playing people and situations and characters.” The topic is just one of many that society needs to work on, says Reinsperger. The years of the pandemic would have shown again like a magnifying glass what was wrong with each other. “My subject is only a small part.” What is also interesting about Reinsperger’s book is her observations on another topic – namely anger and how to deal with this feeling.
“On the one hand, I find anger an incredibly beautiful emotion because my favorite anger is gambling, which I thank God I can live out every day, says Reinsperger. “Privately, however, I have noticed that anger is an emotion that women in particular often and is often discussed because it is often equated with “hysteria.” She wants to encourage many women to say: “Embrace your anger. Accept your anger. Learn to deal with them and to make something constructive out of them and to enter into a dialogue. Only then will things change.”
(This article was first published on Wednesday, February 08, 2023.)
