This summer is the 20th anniversary of Austin Powers in Goldmember, and to commemorate that Vulture’s coverage included an oral history of Beyonce’s role in the movie. I was in middle school when the movie came out and I remember being excited because those movies were considered raunchy/funny back then and my favorite member of Destiny’s Child was in it. It was Beyonce’s first major film role and apparently she took issue with the edits on the promotional poster. When producers showed her the poster, she let them know they’d made her too skinny, so they fixed the poster.
Beyoncé was barely in her twenties when superstardom led her to her most memorable movie role as Foxxy Cleopatra in 2002’s Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Makeup artist Kate Biscoe spilled the beans about the infamous Austin Powers movie poster that the publicity team had signed off on, thinking it was a done deal—until the future Queen Bey rejected the image and called for a re-do.
“When we were shooting, someone brought her a poster that would be promoting the movie. He showed it to her, like, ‘Do you like it?’ And she was kind of like, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘What’s the matter?’ And she says, ‘You made me too skinny. It’s not me.’” Then, according to Biscoe, the “Crazy in Love” singer simply gestured at her hourglass shape as a reference, prompting the team member to acknowledge they had go back to the drawing board and say, “Okay, we’ll fix that.”
Briscoe recalls Beyoncé returning back to work on set after the exchange, leaving the makeup artist and the marketing executive transfixed by what had just occurred. “She walked away to go do the scene, and I looked at him and smiled, like, ‘Is that the first time that you’ve ever had an actress ask to make her body bigger?’ He was like, ‘Yes. It’s going to cost me thousands of dollars, but I am going to do it.’”
It turned out to be the right call—and major kudos to a celebrity having the foresight to be mindful of how her frame was being marketed to impressionable young fans, who may not always see through those photoshopped illusions.
The real rub, here, is that even before marketing executives chose to slim down her body for the poster, Beyoncé had already been forced to lose weight for the movie. Goldmember producer John Lyons told Vulture that the Grammy-winner had to undergo a “really tough physical regimen and diet” to prepare for the films and was restricted to a 1200-a-day caloric intake. That’s legit insane, but she looked incredible in the film, and it actually boggles the mind that Hollywood still wanted her to be thinner.
It’s great that Beyonce spoke up and let them know how she really felt about the poster and that she didn’t feel that it was an accurate representation of her appearance. Though she was already on her way to superstardom at that point, she was still quite young and not the Beyonce she is now and this was film, so outside of her usual wheelhouse. Most people would probably not want to rock the boat in any way at that age and on their first major movie role, but it was important to her so she did. And I think the shocked reaction of the makeup artist retelling the story and the marketing executive at the time shows that what Beyonce did was very unusual — both in terms of speaking up and the specific request. Also, I was aware of her weight loss for Dream Girls and the Master Cleanse stories, but I didn’t realize she’d also done the diet and exercise thing for this movie. Gosh, Hollywood was always making her lose weight for movie roles. And then Photoshopping her even more! I’d be mad if I’d done all that hard work and they still tried to Photoshop me after all that.
Photos credit: Avalon.red and via Instagram
I was working for a magazine back then and first saw it at a press preview. Man, twenty years? I still quote it regularly. But yeah to me Beyoncé has long been Foxxy. Sometimes I’m amazed she was old enough to be in it. I feel like she’s been a cultural icon forever an she’s still so young.
Such a stunning woman AND amazing role model for young girls.
I was 18 and going to college when the movie came out. Oh my goodness what a time the early aughts were vibrating! The theatre was packed and I went with a friend. We felt so grown. At the time, it felt like I had “grown up” with Beyonce (Destiny’s Child came out when I was in the 8th/9th grade) so it was cool seeing her in that kind of movie. I always forget Beyonce is only a year or so older than me, she was so young for that role!
Just proof she was always ahead of the curve. Love her.
I was a big pop culture junkie in early 00s and the pressure to be ultra skinny was CRAZY. I remember when everyone (the Olsen twins, Nicole Richie, Lohan, Hilary Duff etc) suddenly went from being thin to being extremely skinny. NOBODY was talking about body positivity, representation, diet culture etc.
Somebody asking for this was probably unheard of at the time.
What do you get out of commenting on people like this?
I’m sorry I know we love us some Beyonce but this seems revisionist or maybe not quite true.
An African American singer (very successful singer, yes) working on her first movie in the early aughts demanded a movie poster be changed and….. they listened to her and did it? In the Hollywood of 20 years ago?
Seems sus.
I believe it because she didn’t really demand anything. They simply showed it to her and was blown away that she would mention it. It sounds like she casually threw out the statement. I mean big money was behind the Austin Powers films at that time. It was peak height of its popularity and Beyonce in that role was a big get. The point of her character was “bootylicious” why market her the opposite of the point of her role. I
There are so many moving parts to this.
I worked in a restaurant that she came into roughly around this era (2004/2005 – the movie was 2002) and she was considered SO curvy at the time, and yet she was TINY in real life. Yeah she had a round bum but it was still tiny! It just wasn’t flat. She was not what I would really call curvy at all. More a very slim woman who had some shape instead of being straight up and down.
In any case, the way we view famous women and women on film is effed up. Most of them are WAY too thin. Shockingly so. So, when we see a woman of healthy proportions in a film they appear ‘curvy’ or even ‘big’.
I wonder how we would perceive women in general if we were accustomed to seeing women who weren’t extraordinarily thin on the screen?
What if Beyoncé had not been asked to lose weight for this film? And the other films? What if she’d actually been able to be her (still very slim!!) self?
The fact that they are congratulating her in amazement for asking to be represented more accurately when she’d already had to lose weight for the role and still looks tiny in the poster is just sad. How thin must they have made her?? It must have been ridiculously thin.
Other actresses don’t ask for that because either they don’t have the power or they’ve been brainwashed into thinking that they have to be as skinny as possible at all times. Is that something they’ve done wrong? I don’t think so, I just feel sad for them. They’ve been let down.
And then what about the men? Did any of them have to lose weight? Were they also slimmed down on the poster? I’m thinking, probably not!!
Everything about this whole paradigm is wrong. It just makes me ill…
Anyway… sigh.
On a positive note: Bey was breathtaking in this role. Not because of her figure; but because of her presence. What a star.
STUNNING. BEAUTIFUL. ETHEREAL WOMAN!
I remember Beyonce saying she lost weight for that role though. This is back when she did interviews. She said she ate a whole box of honey buns the minute she was done shooting the movie. She was already thinner than her usual self and they STILL had to make her thinner for the promo pics ??? That’s effed up. I don’t think she should have lost weight for the role at all. God forbid a woman have curves.
Who is the woman in red in the first two instagram photos at the end of the post, because that does not look like Beyonce.