Last week, the trailer for Rebel Wilson’s new film, Isn’t It Romantic, debuted. I’ll include the trailer at the end of the post – it looks like a somewhat interesting and self-aware romantic comedy, and it’s nice to see Rebel as the LEAD rather than the supporting character to a thin white woman love-interest. Rebel seemed very proud of the film, when she was on The Ellen Show last week, she debuted the trailer and said, “I’m proud to be the first-ever plus-sized girl to be the star of a romantic comedy.” Which… is not true. She’s arguably the first plus-sized WHITE woman to be the lead of a rom-com. Obviously, she’s ignoring the work done by Queen Latifah and Monique, amongst others.
I saw that people were mad at Rebel for ignoring women of color and participating in the erasure of black female romantic leads. I thought Rebel would, at some point, merely come out and say “My bad, I’m really sorry about my mistake” and that would be the end of it. It could have been a teachable moment. But no apology came, and so people – mostly black film/pop culture critics – kept on dunking on Rebel. And that’s when Rebel made it even worse – she started blocking black critics on Twitter instead of JUST APOLOGIZING. The start of this was just a simple mistake, and she could have so easily recovered from it. But no. She has to start blocking people on Twitter.
I still can’t believe that Rebel Wilson doubled down on the lie that she’s the first fat actress to star in a rom-com. Like Mo’Nique didn’t snag a handsome doctor in Phat Girlz! Like Queen Latifah didn’t get Common AND LL Cool J!
— Evette Dionne 🤷🏾♀️ (@freeblackgirl) November 3, 2018
It seems Rebel Wilson wasn't pleased that I was pleased about this story: https://t.co/iMUmA8lE9i pic.twitter.com/upBKPiHJ1b
— Amy Croffey (@AmyCroffey) June 14, 2018
::grin:: #RebelWilsonBlockedMe
(I didn't even say anything super harsh)
Where's the party? pic.twitter.com/piTogG707E
— Geek Ghoul Diva 👻 (@geekgirldiva) November 4, 2018
Ha ha! We serving mimosas at the #RebelWilsonBlockedMe meeting this morning? pic.twitter.com/xgXekYNUVD
— ReBecca “Rebel Wilson Blocked Me” Theodore-Vachon (@FilmFatale_NYC) November 4, 2018
Photos courtesy of WENN.
What on earth? How hard is it to just say “I forgot to consider those films when I said that — sorry!” It was not a big slip-up at all but was rightfully criticized. It could’ve been so easily corrected!
I totally agree. We all make mistakes and forget to do our research or never heard of something until someone informs us. But to block someone in today’s social media overtake is a no no. She is asking for people to block themselves from seeing her in any more movies.
It would have been SO easy. She could have just said “I was SO excited about the film, and I completely forgot – I can’t believe I made that mistake”
Apparently, and sadly, saying “I was wrong” or “I’m sorry” seem to be fading from the lexicon. Few seem to take personal responsibility anymore.
And Rebel forgot about Rikki Lake. Wasn’t she “the first “white” plus sized contemporary lead (Hairspray, Mrs. Winterborne)?
OMG, even I forgot about Rikki Lake in Hairspray, and I loved that movie as a teen.
Jan I disagree! I think more and more public apologies are getting necessary for anything not pc. Furthermore I suspect some people use “little mistakes” like offensive Halloween costumes to get publicity and then to apologize and get more publicity.
Don’t think it’s the case with rebel Tho, since she’s not apologizing and she has a craft so doesn’t need to play games as much
Rikki Lake was also in Babycakes, came out just around the time of Hairspray, 1989. Rom com, also starring Craig Sheffer.
She also doubled down and said 1) that there was debate if those actresses are technically plus size and 2) if those movies were even rom coms.
So yea-girl is not making herself look good
Plus Amy schuemer had a romantic comedy already so she’s not even the first white plus size woman.
haha don’t let Amy read this. She doesn’t think she is plus-sized.
Well she isn’t very big…only looks so next to the usual extremely slim actresses! Or at least in her movie she didn’t look very big
Ugh blocking people who disagree or disapprove of you is so juvenile! Unless they are legit harassing you then handle it like a woman. Own up to your mistakes and do better.
She’s not American. Isn’t she Australian? Racism and cultural erasure is big in Aussieland. The Aboriginal people fight it regularly. This doesn’t surprise me at all. This is who she was raised to be: a racist. Welp, this light-skinned chick will be advising folks to boycott until she gets her head out of her butt and apologizes. This is what happens when you don’t have friends of other ethnicities to pull your coat about your racist views. Happens all the time, and we are sick of it.
She also talked on Ellen about how her grandfather makes jokes about aboriginal Australians–and not in a “so hard to deal with grandpa” way. Some Australians on twitter say that these tend to be jokes about violence inflicted on aboriginal peoples.
It’s honestly shocking how openly racist Aus gets. Cartoons and articles that look like they came out of Victorian era pseudoscientific racist tracts are shared there commonly. It’s turned me off of visiting personally.
This is also how she handled the thing about her age. Instead of just admitting she fudged her age and maybe using the moment to talk about age discrimination for women in Hollywood, she sued everyone involved. She won because Oz’s press laws are stiffer, but she has a history of not owning her mistakes.
I believe she actually lost on appeal and was ORDERED TO REPAY 90% OF HER $4.5+M PAYOUT earlier this year. So she’s been REALLY wrong before and clearly has not been humbled in the least.
I guess I won’t be seeing anything she’s in anymore. I started boycotting when the NFL starting its Kappernick band so I stopped watching the games And I’ve band R Kelley Chris Brown Kevin Spacey Johnny Depp I’ve been banned Woody Allen films long ago but for the most part I’ve evaluated who I wanna give my money to
Well aint she charming.
This is also Shallow Hal erasure 😂
Dang it. Keep posting on wrong article
wrong page
This movie looks cute. Too bad about Rebel being clueless. I mean, this is bad. Her manager or pr person couldn’t have shut her down?
I know, it doesn’t seem too hard. Elizabeth Banks made a very similar error (said Stephen Spielberg had no female-led films, totally forgetting about The Color Purple) and issued a solid apology.
What AMAZES ME…is that somebody, in the year 20 of OUR LAWD 18…would thank they’re the FIRST at doing…ANYTHING? ESPECIALLY when it comes to full-figured women in rom-coms…I mean…even BEFORE Queen Latifah was giving you an extra serving…Ricki Lake was showcasing big girl romantic vibes with Hairspray…AND Mrs. Winterbourne…and not to mention, one of my faves…Babycakes….
I have Rebel’s clothes in my closet and have seen EVERY Rebel performance that she’s put out here…From now on, my time and money will be REBELLING against HER!
Ummm yes, Ricki Lake…let’s not forget about her movies!
Same here, not even going to look at the trailer much less see the movie.
THANK YOU! That was my middle aged response, like seriously, what kind of hubris to declare you are the first of anything? That type of statement only says to me you know nothing about film culture or global arts and even in the realm you are making millions, you know squat (like Chris Pratt’s whine a few months ago that there are no white working class films??? Who are these kids in the movies, lets take Global Cinema and Television 101).
Dig deep and know you are probably not, but rather someone before you was a trail blazer and simply didn’t get credit…That is also why I always will love Queen Latifah because rather than toot her own glorious horn and she IS a goddess of firsts—she always credits ladies BEFORE her like Bessie Smith.
I’m kinda happy she made this mistake because it has helped me come to the realization that so many people love Ricki Lake and Babycakes.
I heart Queen Latifah so very very much! As a plus sized (white) girl I loved that she unapologetically always got the very hottest man in all her movies (bonjour Djimon!). It actually made me a little sad to find out she was gay (no shade – she should do her thing – I just loved that a bigger woman was allowed to be presented as conventionally attractive and wanted her to end up with the hottest dudes in real life, too….don’t shout at me – I was in my 20s, I’ve grown up since then lol)
Yay white feminism
I mean… she’s really showing herself here. What about Hairspray and as noted by many people Queen Latifah, Monique movies? What about that terribly problematic movie “Sierra Burgess is a loser” from like a month ago? Ricki lake? It’s such a bs statement and the fact that she can’t just own up to it is annoying.
Ah, the curse of the big, fat ego.
ugh, why Rebel why!?? All you had to say is “I’m sorry” – it’s not that hard.
I can’t believe how much worse she made this for herself.
Rebel is such a disappointment. How sad that you can’t deal with real life and admit your mistakes.
She can and just doesn’t want to admit to her mistakes.
lmao, what a coward. I never liked her.
Me either. Never understood her appeal. Am I remembering correctly but hasn’t she been problematic before??
I didn’t remember this, but apparently, she made a comment in 2016 about “practicing her transgender face” so she could win an Oscar like Eddie Redmayne.
She also made a joke about police brutality on the MTV awards in ’15 and got minimal slack.
She would’ve done better to apologize, but honestly…this is why Twitter is such a shit platform for most of us. The backlash can be immediate and brutal, even if it’s valid. It doesn’t bring out the best of us.
That can be true about twitter, but the striking thing in this case, was that several of the people she blocked were incredibly nice in their tweets about her mistake. And she seemingly only blocked black people, so this one’s not on twitter.
Well, yeah, then that’s just being a douchebag.
Oh god. I guarantee you she’s just putting people’s response down to them being haters for the sake of it rather than having any kind of self-reflection about this. Stop digging, Rebel!
I saw a preview to this movie this weekend and thought, “Cool.” Now I won’t see it. And I saw 51 movies on my moviepass card before it started only letting me see goosebumps 2 months ago. Now I just use Atom or amc to see cheap morning movies.
She needs to grow up and apologize or she’ll be the first plus size woman to have a movie flop. (/scarasm)
Lainey had a screen shot Friday where she further doubled down. Tweeted that it was questionable if “technically those girls were plus size when filming” and if “technically they were billed/categorized as a studio romcom with a sole lead.” Seriously?! How hard is it to own up to a mistake? The studio must be cringing. If this is how she promotes, this may be her first and last time as a sole lead.
It’s such a weird statement because it assumes we can’t go back and just watch those movies. Like we can’t hit up Youtube and verify that yes, Ricki Lake was plus-size in Hairspray, Mrs. Winterbourne and Babycakes, or that Mo’Nique and Queen Latifah exist, and we have IMDB to verify the genre of any given film, and all of these ladies have movies they star in marked as “romance/comedy.” All of this can fact checked.
She should have just owned up to her mistake. This is embarrassing. Also I feel like this movie may be coming out too close on the heels of I Feel Pretty — same idea of the not thin romantic lead. I know it’s essentially different because in one movie, the female lead is blissfuly unaware because of a head injury and in this one she is hyper-aware things have changed. But as a viewer I’m not sure I’d enjoy these meta-movies, because I genuinely like romantic comedies.
I think it’s good they’re challenging the typical thin white protagonist, but how about instead of heavier white protagonists with a history of being problematic — or just now revealing they can’t handle criticism — we get a broader range of women and men represented? People of color, people of different sexual orientation, ability, etc. And, you know, people who wouldn’t block people on social media.
Wow, this is really crappy on her part- rebel’s comment says something about not considering contributions from black and brown performers, as I believe she genuinely didn’t know/remember those films with queen Latifa and Monique. kumail nanjiani said this at the Oscars, growing up the movie four weddings and a funeral had a big effect on him wanting to be a comedian and he empathized with hugh grant in that film but he was white as Kumail was not yet he was still able to empathize with him-he pointed out if he can do that then white people can empathize with other races too. It’s part of white privilege that some don’t want to or feel they shouldn’t have to. Rebel not remembering those films says something to this-she didn’t identify with those characters as white people aren’t told they should or even could. This could’ve been a growing experience for rebel but she’s showing her ass reacting the way she has.
For what it’s worth I think things like this are the good parts of social media. me too movement, times up, etc. the pepsi commercial wouldn’t have been pulled so quickly if social media hadn’t come for it. Prior to these situations I thought little of social media as the pain it’s caused so many from bullying-you can’t believe what teenagers are capable of (although I remember a story where a teen’s mom got in on the bullying so I guess it takes all kinds) but things like the me too movement enabled people to feel free to tell their stories instead of being shut down by publicists, managers, etc.
Gotta love that white feminism. Love erasing black women from the narrative and then run like cowards or play the victim when it’s pointed out to them. How much arrogance and hubris you must have to not just admit the mistake and move on??
We all make mistakes Rebel. Admit yours, you’re not special in that regard.
She wasn’t the first white plus size female, either. There’s Ricki Lake in hairspray. Maybe she’s the first Aussie actress, but she should have just admitted she goofed. No biggie.
Nope! The 1st Aussie plus size (at the time) actress was Toni Collette in Muriel’s Wedding back in 1994!
Ricki Lake had Hair Spray in 1988, Baby Cakes in 198′, and Mrs. Winterbourne in 1996! Queen Latifa was a lead in 3 to come in the early 2000s. Monique was a lead in one, and Melissa McCarthy had several as well! This girl is so out of touch with reality!🤦🏾♀️
Omg forgot that one! I LOVED Muriel’s Wedding!
JEEZ LOUISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW DID I FORGET ABOUT “MURIEL’S WEDDING”…WHEN I SAW IT FIVE TIMES OPENING WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Muriel’s Wedding was the BEST!
God, Rebel is so embarrassing. It seems like self-awareness and humility are at a premium these days.
I was going to say “Well she’s Australian…” and then I remembered Murial’s wedding. That was a great moment for Australian movies; I think Pricilla Queen of the Desert came out around the same time (a year before maybe.)
Almost all of the people she blocked were POC, too.
Hmmmmmm…
Not to diminish this very valid argument but hasn’t Melissa McCarthy been the lead in several movies already??
Of course-but if we’re not acknowledging anyone, not black, brown or other white people apparently. (eyeroll)
Rebel’s argument in this case would be Melissa McCarthy has not been a lead in a romcom.
She has, though most of them have been comedy, not rom-com. That one she did about going to college had a romantic angle to the story though, so I’d even add that one to the list.
And Spy definitely has sexual tension that is, uh, released, at the end (spoiler alert)
I think the trailer looks great. As for Rebel, I mean…she definitely seems like to craft her own reality when it comes to her public image and career story.
It’s not even that big of a deal to admit this mistake. In fact as mistakes go, this should’ve been very easy to correct. How weird for her to get huffy about this.
What made this even worse is that she started responding positively to some women who made the same points, but only when those corrections came from white women. As usual feminism and body positivity movements erase non-white women.
Ps: her character was always the worst part of the pitch perfect movies.
What about Hairspray? Or is that technically a musical instead of a rom com?
Worst part is, I probably would have wanted to watch this movie if not for Rebel’s behavior. Had she apologized, especially if she showed she’d learned something from it, I probably wouldn’t have given it another thought. Now there’s no way I’ll see it, and I’ll certainly never pay to see anything she’s in again.
Not a good look. She was even blocking people who didn’t even @ her. And yep, 99.9% of the people she blocked were either black or brown. And some were very gracious with their criticism, even after she doubled down.
How is she this thin-skinned?
Not surprised..
I am glad that attention is being called to her predominantly, if not exclusively, blocking Black critics. She needs to be called out loudly for her not only doubling down on her erroneous comments but her decision to block Black folks who’ve corrected her about her incorrect commentary.
we all make mistakes and saying “sorry, my bad” can be hard, but be an adult and bite the bullet.
she wasn’t the first. she needs to get over it.
She is over for me. She earned some goodwill in Bridesmaids and with Pitch Perfect, but now I just can’t stand her face. She acts as if she’s god’s gift to comedy and the first plus-sized female comedian…..please. Not issuing an apology speaks volumes. She is a self-absorbed idiot.
Let’s not forget where she was raised – of course it is No Excuse, however we know how Australian culture and history has been to people of color, yet we (Americans) have the problem. Australia has never apologized.
https://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples
Not that I disagree with the sentiment but uhhhh, we apologised.
LOOOOOOOOOOOL. An apology doesn’t mean jack when there has been no reparations scheme to actually fix everything that’s been happening to Indigenous people since 1788. It doesn’t negate the fact that Indigenous people disproportionately represent the majority of incarcerated people when they only make up like 3% of the population. It doesn’t fix the brutal deaths that happened and are still happening in police custody, or the countless problems Indigenous people face as a result of colonisation. Family violence, generational trauma, alcoholism, racial profiling, eradicating entire languages and ethnicities, the stolen generation and it’s modern counterpart – removing children from their families and into out-of-home care etc. Shit has been getting worse and worse for them politically, socially and economically but, ‘we apologised’…get outta here.
I said I agreed with the sentiment, just fact checking the original poster. Don’t come for me when you don’t comprehend what I’m saying.
Ricki Lake, Melissa McCarthy, and Nikki Blonksy – and Amy Schumer although she’d fight people calling her plus size – have all been leads in romcoms or musicals.
You should never say you’re the first ever anything. Someone else should point that out for you. She should have known better.
I’m going to be the lone dissenter here, and say this is just another example of something silly and not in any way malicious being blown way out of proportion. I mean, OMG, she forgot about Muriel’s Wedding and PhatGirlz, the sky is falling. I wasn’t aware of the existence of PhatGirlz until I read about this “controversy” over the weekend. It wouldn’t surprise if Rebel wasn’t aware of the existence of any of the movies listed with black leads because you know what? They are almost exclusively advertised to ethnic and urban audiences! A better response to Rebel’s post would have been like “Rebel believes she is the first female plus size for a romantic comedy because Hollywood continues to pidgeon hole films with African American leads” and to call out the larger erasure within Hollywood of plus sized women and minorities in general, and create the discussion around that.
She made an erroneous tweet and was excited about her upcoming film – personally I think the pile on was unneccesssary; the focus should have been on the system not the individual and by golly as someone who does D and I training I wish the general public would understand the difference between calling out vs. calling in. And when to use which.
But why block perfectly polite people pointing out you made a mistake? These weren’t trolls. And her work is in the public sphere, just like her comment was. People have a right to call her out. She should just acknowledge her error, which was pretty egocentric in nature in addition to being ignorant.
Well yeah people can call her out but she can also block who she chooses – such is Twitter. There was a fantastic discussion that could have been had about a larger issue but instead it’s become, I’m not sure what exactly, that Rebel Wilson is not a purveyor of films with plus size leads and she doesn’t like criticism. Or maybe she reached her breaking point after yet another person felt the need to call her out after it had already been done by dozens already. Or maybe she is just an asshole. The story becomes Rebel Wilson blocks people on twitter instead of Rebel Wilson’s Tweet Highlights A Huge Hollywood Problem. People continue to miss the forests for the trees. Nothing said she was offensive, racist, sexist, – she didn’t acknowledge that there were other plus size actresses who starred in romantic comedies and people are losing their minds – because she didn’t apologize and own up to her mistake in a manner that was acceptable to the Twittter masses………
Well, that’s the thing, @Patty. You’re framing this like it’s just about people not liking her response and she can choose to do this or not. But it’s a public conversation – one that she started and one that might reveal she had a blindspot that might be or might not be due to a kind of white-centric worldview in her personally. But she took it public and it became a public conversation with an implied political and social message (while maybe not outright offensive or racist as you say) so people need to respond or else it’s kind of left out there that maybe only a plus-sized white woman being first in romcoms (which isn’t even true as Shelley below points out; and also see Toni Collette in Muriel’s Wedding) counts. Growing pains for her and as Sigh posted down below, others like Chastain have taken criticism humbly and been open. Anyway, she’s apologised. It’s about the public conversation. You put that out there as a celeb with a platform so you’re going to be held to account. It became a conversation as soon as she said it on that show and people disagreeing with the way she handled it is part of their response in their side of the public conversation; it’s not trolling or trying to hate on someone for its own sake.
This response is poetry
“They are almost exclusively advertised to ethnic and urban audiences! ”
“Ethnic and urban audiences” are still audiences, and the movies are still movies, despite your and hers ignorance of them. SHE made a sweeping proclamation, WITHOUT ANY qualifiers/restrictions/specifications (or credence) and was proven 100% wrong. Be it ignoring “ethnic and urban audiences,” her own Australian audience (Muriel’s Wedding), and/or white audiences (Ricki Lake’s works) in general.
But instead of accepting justified correction from MINORITIES & NON-MINORITIES ALIKE, she DIMINISHED/DISMISSED the “ethnic and urban audiences'” examples as “technically” not plus-sized (when Latifah at her *smallest* is STILL HW plus-sized & Monique, who gained attention well OUTSIDE of “ethnic and urban audiences,” lost weight AFTER her Oscar run) with a rhetorical question. Even POC that addressed her calmly, correctly, yet directly were blocked, with her dialoguing with white women as if in secret…ON THE INTERNET/TWITTER. SHE dismissed the “ethnic and urban audience” once again.
Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Chastain, etc managed to take their “loss” as a lesson, but WILSON turned this “silly” mistake into a malicious situation.
+1. Also, ethnic is an annoying word, implying non-white is “out of the norm.” I always say international cuisine, not “ethnic cuisine.”
Never liked her and these kinds of things are why. She’s a narcissist and a brat, imo.
The original comment was so obnoxious and her blocking makes it clear she’s not an adult. She can’t be much of an industry person if she can forget about non-white roles and films just like that.
Would it have been so hard to say something like “Sorry, its just so uncommon for plus size actresses to be considered a lead in a rom-com that I forgot/didnt know about the others. My mistake. ” and move on. Like did she really have to question whether those movies are “technically considered rom coms or whether those actresses are actually considered plus size?
To go back many decades: Lynn Redgrave in ‘Georgy Girl.’
Also Muriel’s Wedding.
Aside from all of that the girl just can’t act, I have no idea why she keeps getting cast in things. Her best role was as Toula and she was MEANT to be a caricature in that.