‘Hairspray’ shines light on plus-sized women

updated 5:33 p.m. ET July 22, 2007

LOS ANGELES - The ladies of “Hairspray” are a rarity in fat-phobic Hollywood, whose obsession with willowy women is so strong the idea of a corpulent heroine is almost unheard of.

The new big-screen musical, with lyrics that include a line about women’s “extra large largesse” shining through, debuts Friday. The filmmakers hope it will help open moviegoers’ minds to the notion that people of ample proportions deserve their Hollywood close-ups.

Curvier women such as Mae West, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell were far more common in old Hollywood, but the outright portly like “Hairspray” lead character Tracy Turnblad have hardly ever gotten their day as lead characters.

“Growing up, all I saw were the really thin actors and pop singers of the world. Everybody was so thin and tall and blond and everything I was not,” said Nikki Blonsky, the hefty 4-foot-10 newcomer who plays Tracy. “Do I have to be like them to make it into the business? I thought, ‘No, I’m going to find a way to make it in, just as somebody different.’

“I think that’s what I’m really trying to accomplish here, and that’s why I’m so excited to have the movie open and show these little kids out there who may be thinking like I was, ‘Oh God, all I see are these thin girls. Do I have to be like them?’ No, you don’t.”

Heroine gets the guy
The movie is based on the Broadway musical about teenager Tracy, a plump sweetheart who sets out to appear on a 1960s TV dance program in Baltimore and ends up leading a fight to integrate the show.

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Tracy also sings and dances up a storm, gets the hunkiest guy in town, becomes a TV darling and foils the schemes of the station’s ex-beauty-queen manager (Michelle Pfeiffer).

The stage musical in turn was based on John Waters’ 1988 cult flick, which put then-pudgy Ricki Lake, the original Tracy Turnblad, on the road to stardom. Marissa Jaret Winokur won a Tony for originating the role of Tracy on Broadway.

“It’s going to have made three young girls a big star. Three fat girls. That’s even greater,” Waters said. “I’ve had good luck with fat girls. Just call me Jack Sprat. ...

“I always thought a big girl, every outsider could identify with that. Everyone feels like an outsider nowadays, so I thought everyone could identify with Tracy. She makes people feel good about themselves, no matter what they look like.”

Few roles for large women
As always in show business, women have a harder time than men if they are overweight, with stout male stars such as John Candy, John Belushi, John Goodman and Jack Black far more common than chubby females.

Beyond a few stars such as Roseanne Barr and Camryn Manheim on television or “Hairspray” co-star Queen Latifah, large women tend to get stuck in bit parts or stereotyped comic roles.

Even when roles call for women with some weight, they often go to trim stars who gain pounds for the part, such as Renee Zellweger did with “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and Charlize Theron did with “Monster.”

Besides Tracy, “Hairspray” puts two other chunky female characters front and center. Latifah’s Motormouth Maybelle becomes Tracy’s ally and sings one of the musical’s best-loved tunes, “Big, Blonde and Beautiful.”

Then there’s Tracy’s mom, beefy, bashful Edna, so conscious of her size she hasn’t left her apartment in years. Maintaining the “Hairspray” tradition since Divine originated the part in the Waters film, Edna is played by a man, John Travolta, performing in a fat suit.

Edna gradually comes out of her apartment and out of her shell, learning to love herself for what she is — a fat woman — all thanks to encouragement from daughter Tracy, played with zealous ingenue spirit by Blonsky.

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