WhenAidy Bryantfirst read Lindy West’s bookShrill: Notes From a Loud Woman, theSaturday Night Livestar says the memoir struck a chord.
Aidy Bryant.Erik Voake/Getty
The series stars Bryant as Annie, whom Hulu describes as “a fat young woman who wants to change her life — but not her body.”
Growing up, “So often fat characters were the punchline,” Bryant says. “Even if it wasn’t necessarily about their weight, it was about the way they lived their life or who they were is a joke. An example is the idea that a fat woman would see a man, feel attracted to him, and then she would jump on him and the whole chair would fall apart, or they would fall to the ground and she … And it’s like, that’s not how any fat person has ever interacted sexually in reality.”
Frazer Harrison/Getty
So when Bryant got involved with the project, she knew she wanted to change the narrative.
“I never felt like I saw a fat person’s romantic life treated with any dignity on the screen,” she says. “That was one of the main reasons that one of the first scenes of the first episode is her having sex, and it’s normal, fine, like real sex. It’s not like mind blowing porn sex, It’s just pretty human, normal sex. That is a big part of a person’s relationship to their body and their identity, and so what we wanted to do, was show it with some respect.”
Aidy Bryant onShrill.
Bryant adds that the response from fans has been amazing.
“I definitely assumed that young fat women would identify with it, but it’s really been a whole range of men, women, thin, fat,” she says. “People can relate to being really hard on themselves, being their own worst critic and being trapped in that mindset and wanting to get out of it. That is really universal.”
Season 2 ofShrillis available on Hulu Jan. 24.
source: people.com
