WD’s Josh McDermitt to trolls who body shamed costar: ‘she just had a kid’

Apparently two weeks ago The Walking Dead had another one of those capsule episodes, and this one involved Tara and a group of new people. The actress who plays Tara, Alanna Masterson, 28, had her first baby in November of last year, right before she filmed that episode. I haven’t been keeping up with Walking Dead recently but it was cute to see the creative ways they hid Masterson’s pregnancy before the midseason break, by putting her in hoodies and filming her from different angles. Anyway people said nasty sh-t on the internet about Masterson I guess, because that’s the world we live in now, where internet trolls get elected to higher office. Her costar, Josh McDermitt (Eugene, the dude with the mullet), went off about it during an interview with The Huffington Post, saying that those people need to be called out, essentially. A brief excerpt is below and you can watch the video on Huffpo’s site:

“She just had a kid. That’s why she hasn’t been in the first six episodes because she was recovering from pregnancy and then people are talking trash about her appearance, and it’s like, screw you,” he said.

McDermitt continued, “I’m going to bully you into stop bullying. That’s what I feel like we need to do. I don’t know how this is gonna work, but we have to stop bullying each other and calling people out for their appearance.”

The actor said he often acts self-deprecating to take the wind out of the bullies’ sails, but he explained, “Not everyone’s gonna do that, and, honestly, I wish I didn’t have to do that.”

“People need to chill the F out with the crap that they’re putting on the internet. It’s very disturbing because we are people, everyone. And I’m not talking about actors. I’m talking about anyone on the internet. I mean, I just read something on CNN the other day where a teenage girl committed suicide who was cyber bullied. This is bullshit. This should never happen,” he said.

McDermitt said social media companies aren’t doing enough and called on them to go after bullies and shut down accounts.

[From Huffington Post]

He’s not wrong and it’s particularly bad on Twitter as we’ve seen because there are hardly any tools for users to delete nasty comments, they can only hide them from their own view given the way the platform works. I think Instagram and Facebook are better as the comments are made on your own page and you have the ultimate control. In Twitter it’s just people talking crap out in the open where the targets have less recourse. It’s sad when it happens to adolescents and teenagers especially because they’re less equipped to deal with that vitriol. That said, there’s a saying “don’t feed the trolls” for a reason. It’s better not to respond to these people directly or they’ll just keep it coming. Calling them out in general like this is a good way to handle it though. I checked McDermitt’s twitter and he’s not feeding the trolls at all and mostly posts links to his recaps of Walking Dead on EW and professional stuff.

I did find this post that Masterson made responding to the trolls in general, which is probably what he’s referring to, although it’s not mentioned in the Huffpo video. This is new to me but you may have heard about it as it’s been up for a while. Good for her. Her daughter’s name is Marlowe and she’s adorable!

Dear Instagram trolls, body shamers, and the men and woman who think it's ok to comment on my weight: I hope that you don't have children. And if you do, I hope you teach them about kindness and acceptance. I hope they learn that it isn't ok to make fun of people or call people names. I hope one day YOU learn what it takes to be a parent. A kind, selfless parent. A working parent. A parent that puts themselves in someone else's shoes. Maybe you can't get it through your thick f-king skull, but nursing a baby for a year (and pumping in a van between takes, in the dead of summer in Georgia) is a lot of work, determination, and scheduling. So before you decide to make a comment about my chest being "too large" or how "fat" I've become, just know that this little girl got the best start to life. I wouldn't have changed it for a second. I would've gladly continued to eat enough calories to produce milk for her little bones to grow. Also, grow the f-k up. Your mother should be ashamed for raising such a judgmental bully. I'm sure she knows how "courageous" you must be for trolling and hiding behind your Iphone and computers. P.s. I would LOVE to see any man or woman give birth to a baby, nurse the baby, and then work 17 hour days and NAIL their own stunts. P.s.s. Be kind to each other. We need it now more than ever. ❤️✌🏼️

A photo posted by Alanna Masterson (@lucytwobows) on

Breast Cancer Research Symposium and Luncheon

photos credit: WENN and Getty

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24 Responses to “WD’s Josh McDermitt to trolls who body shamed costar: ‘she just had a kid’”

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  1. Senaber says:

    People can be so gross. Kudos to Josh for sticking up for her though. In this world we need as many white male allies as we can get- and I wish I was joking.

  2. LAK says:

    I think they missed the mark. Her body shouldn’t be part of public discourse. Period. No need to explain why it’s changed, unless it’s part of her character’s development in the story. In that scenerio, she can explain in the context of her character.

    In the process of giving a very specific one-off event explanation for her weight changes, they are making her body public property that can only be accepted in the narrow confines defined by trolls.

    • boredblond says:

      You read my mind..to explain or justify your shape is just playing with the wrong set of rules

    • littlemissnaughty says:

      I had the same thought initially. Why are they explaining to the assh*les why it’s okay to look that way? Because she had a baby? And if not? But I guess I see the point. It’s just extra sh*tty to do this to a new mom. You go through all that, your work your butt off on set on top of it, and then you’re ridiculed for having big boobs because you’re feeding your child? As someone who’s always been a bit overweight my first reaction was “Oh so it’s okay to call me fat just because I don’t have an excuse?” But then I imagine that new moms must often feel so crazy weird with how their bodies have changed on top of all the other drastic changes in their lives and I guess I’m still a little better equipped to deal with it than many of them are during that time. As one friend told me: “One day I was standing in the shower thinking who IS this? What the hell even happened?”

      • Sayrah says:

        When I read the tag line I was about to come in here and say that he missed the mark blaming her softer body on pregnancy but what he said doesn’t really read that way to me. I think it sounds more thought out and reasonable than I assumed it was.

    • Radley says:

      I think by telling people what was going on with her, they’re making the point that people shouldn’t judge, period. I don’t think either was apologizing for her figure or anything. You just never know what’s going on with people and it’s not ok to arbitrarily criticize for your own amusement. Even if she was just loving life and eating delicious three course meals everyday, it still isn’t anyone’s place to judge. It’s not the trolls life or body, so shut up. In a nutshell.

      I’m kind of amazed that trolling is still such a thing. So many have been unmasked and often they aren’t exactly killing it in any area of life. You’d think people would have enough self-awareness to not lump themselves in with the saddest most bitter people on the internet. But I guess everybody thinks they’re the exception and they think their nasty comments are the most clever, cutting and attention worthy. Ridiculous.

  3. Mieke says:

    Look at that little girl, now look at those bullies, look back at the cuteness of that small human being… Who cares about bullies when you have that in your live! That kiddo is al kinds of adorable and bullies need nothing more than to be ignored.

  4. V4Real says:

    Good for him for sticking up for her. I guess Josh reads the IMDb board that’s where you usually find all the trolls who say the most nastiest things and the board allows it.

    I also read about that teenage girl. She shot herself right in front of her parents.

  5. giulia says:

    Body shaming is wrong period her giving birth is irrelevant. I appreciate his intentions tho. Thanks for playing josh.

  6. smcollins says:

    I understand the point some of you are trying to make about the reason for her body changing being irrelevant, but his heart is in the right place and that’s what matters here. It seems like people just can’t win ever. Always have to find something to pick at.

    • LAK says:

      Body shaming should be a zero tolerance activity. No grey areas. By giving an explanation for her changed body she’s created a grey area which means she’s beholden to the trolls.

  7. Lotusgoat says:

    I got a shiver reading her post. Well said. Adorable daughter. Screw the haters.

  8. Patricia says:

    I think she’s beautiful and her figure is beautiful. I’m not always looking to see the same exact thin woman in everything. It’s fun and lovely to see different shapes women on tv. I would love to have her figure to be honest.

    • susiecue says:

      She is SO gorgeous! Her baby is ridiculous too. And I really like her character on TWD. That’s all I got.

    • isabelle says:

      She has a large chest and it can make someone appear much bigger than their actual weight. She isn’t even big, normal weight here the real world. She is probably much smaller than the Americans mocking her on social media.

  9. L84Tea says:

    I actually have a little secret crush on this guy. Every time I see him I think, just lose the awful Eugene haircut and he’s actually a little adorable! Now after reading this, crush explosion!

  10. isabelle says:

    After seeing a few interviews with him, sort of have a crush on him. He is smart, funny and sort of weird. He is as quirky with a great voice. Not the typical hollywood perfect man. Makes me like him even more than before.

  11. Krysten says:

    I am part of the facebook walking dead group and I can tell it got so bad about people commenting on her weight that the group supervisor had to put out a special message saying people need to stfu about her weight and that she just had a baby and that she looked beautiful! People were saying the most awful things about her. This group gets pics of them on set filming and they were attacking her before the episode even aired!! And I do think that since she has such a large chest it makes her seem bigger than she is. Not that its anyones business anyways..I love how everyone in the walking dead cast truly love eachother and take up for eachother.

  12. sa says:

    When Natalie Portman was pregnant after Black Swan came out, I was standing in a checkout line and the woman ahead of me was was flipping through a magazine and after seeing a picture of pregnant Natalie Portman said to her male companion that she used to like Natalie Portman, but she got so fat, and then they both laughed at how “fat” she was.

    Anyway, my only point is that I think the people that would go online to criticize a woman’s body, probably don’t care that she just had a baby. She didn’t look like their ideal, and she should be publicly shamed for that.

    I doubt that any of the trolls commenting about her and her weight cared at all about being called out for it.

  13. L84Tea says:

    It took me ages to put my finger on who she reminds me of and it finally hit me. Alanna Masterson reminds me so much of Dakota Johnson, just a darker version of her. I swear, they could pass for sisters or at least cousins.

  14. Kori says:

    I like her and her character and think the comments were so gross. But I also can’t help side eye a comment on acceptance and kindness from a Scientologist after everything discussed here and elsewhere the last couple years.

  15. amilu says:

    It was so gross. I actually liked the Tara-centric episode, and I thought it worked well as an introduction to another group. But the internet seemed to take great offense that a “filler” episode starring Tara even happened. And they took it out on the actress/character. It’s like, “Rick/Negan/a main character isn’t in the episode??? F the writers. F the show. F Tara. She has big boobs.” So immature.

    And that’s just from comment sections on news/blog/magazine articles. I’m not even on Twitter. I don’t think I could even handle THAT much meanness and stupidity! Masterson’s response on IG was perfect.