Rebel Wilson played 'Fat Amy' in Pitch Perfect. She said her contract banned her from losing weight.

For decades, there's been an unspoken truth about weight clauses in contracts in Hollywood.

We've heard the stories about Judy Garland and the actors of her time, forced by studio executives to go on strict diets. Garland was even coerced into smoking an excessive amount of cigarettes as a means to maintain a certain weight. 

In recent years, the industry has gone quiet on this subject. But the implementation of weight clauses has remained the same. 

Actor Rebel Wilson opened up this week about having a weight clause in her contract for the Pitch Perfect movies - and her complicated feelings about it.

Watch Fat Amy on Pitch Perfect. Story continues below.

When trying to get her foot in the door in Hollywood, Wilson felt pigeonholed into playing bigger characters. 

"I had been thinking for a while, like, 'Oh, I want to get healthier.' And I was stereotyped into playing that fat, funny friend, which is so hard because I love those roles. I love doing the roles. I love those characters. I did want to do more things, but I felt like being the bigger girl, you're just more pigeonholed," she explained to the Call Her Daddy podcast.

Then in 2012, Pitch Perfect came along and Wilson played the part of 'Fat Amy'.

But in her contract, she said she was prohibited from losing weight. 

"You can't lose, I think, it's not more than 10 pounds or gain more than 10 pounds. You have to kind of stay at the weight. It's in your contract," she said.

After the third and final Pitch Perfect movie came out in 2017, Wilson said she made the decision to lose weight for health reasons.

Reflecting on the contract clause, Wilson said to the Hollywood Reporter that although she was stereotyped into playing "the fat, funny girl" she did love what it offered her. 

"I played into [it] and made millions of dollars doing it. Unfortunately, in Hollywood, people need to see you differently in order to cast you differently or give you new opportunities."

Image: Getty.

Wilson isn't the only celebrity to experience this.

This Is Us actor Chrissy Metz played plus-size woman Kate on the hit television show. As the seasons progressed, Metz's character would lose weight as per the storyline created by the show's writers. And with this came an expectation that Metz would lose weight herself to coincide with the character. 

"In our contract, it did state that would be a part of it, to lose the weight in the trajectory of the character as she comes to find herself. That was a win-win for me. Because it's one thing to try to do it on your own," she said to TVLine as per Page Six.

"I just have to be very clear. Whether or not I lose weight or stay the same, it's purely a choice of mine for health. Not because I think that plus size, curvy, voluptuous, big bodies aren't attractive - because I think they're awesome and sexy. So I'll just have to make sure that's known because I'm not selling out the big girls. That's not me."

#ThisIsUs star Chrissy Metz's contract has a mandatory weight loss clause https://t.co/VD4X6Tw68d pic.twitter.com/C72Jav3Up3

— Page Six (@PageSix) November 18, 2016

Traci Bingham is best known for her role as Jordan Tate on Baywatch. She said that in her contract she was forbidden from her weight fluctuating by a few kilograms.

"If you did anything to gain or lose weight, etc, you were in trouble," Bingham said to USA Today.

The same goes in the music industry, with multiple K-pop stars saying they were required to either lose weight or stay the same weight as per their contracts.

These stories certainly paint a questionable image of the entertainment industry, not to mention the fact that anecdotally more female actors have experienced these weight clauses than their male counterparts. 

But as Wilson said on Call Her Daddy, she hopes to never be pigeonholed again for her weight - nor to have to sign a contract which mentions weight ever again.

For help and support for eating disorders, contact the Butterfly Foundation's National Support line and online service on 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673).

Feature Image: Universal Pictures/Getty/Mamamia.

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