
Content warning: this article deals with disordered eating and may be triggering for some readers.
Rebel Wilson is in an impossible situation.
The actress, writer, and producer lives and works in the public eye, and with that comes an unfortunate yet never-ending commentary around her body.
So when she decided to make changes to her body, she was left with two equally undesirable choices.
She could opt to hide herself away from the glare of cameras and red carpets until eventually, photos would emerge of her changed form, inviting the vice-like grip of extreme publicity to tighten even further around her.
Or she could make her intentions public from the start, documenting her actions as a way to loosely control a narrative that was sure to build up around her at any cost.
She opted for the latter, and swiftly flooded her social channels with images and updates of her 'Year Of Health'.
And this is where the trouble began.
Listen to The Spill hosts discuss why we should not be applauding Rebel Wilson at the BAFTA's.
Not trouble with Rebel making decisions about her own body of course, but trouble with the language that sprung up around it, with words that fell out of her own mouth, the views that filled the comments section on her Instagram feed, and the salacious headlines championing one troubling truth - that there is no higher achievement an already successful woman can accomplish than making herself smaller.
This week Rebel Wilson hosted the prestigious British Academy Film Awards for the first time, tapped for the job due to her performance skills and her ability to deftly command the attention of an audience.
She had presented at the awards a handful of times before and made such an impact that she was applauded for 'breathing life back into the BAFTAs'. On the whole, her stint on the 2022 stage was a success.
Except for an opening monologue joke and the accompanying photo that flashed across the Royal Albert Hall's giant screens as she made it.
“I might look a bit different from the last time you guys saw me here," Rebel began, as an image of her presenting at the awards in 2020 appeared on the screens. "This was me two years ago and since then I’ve done quite a transformation.”
“Everybody is asking me, ‘why did you lose weight?’ Well, clearly, it was to get the attention of Robert Pattinson…”
“Just joking,” she continued. “Guys, seriously, I did not lose weight just for a guy. As if. I did it to get more acting roles. I am so excited I can play the non-funny love interest in an Adam Sandler movie."
The first instinctual reaction to this is that she needed to make the joke before anyone else could. Knowing that the news coverage of this glitzy event would reference her weight in some way, much like her choice to document her transformation from the start, she made a decision to flip it to her advantage.
Yet there's another side to this story that we cannot look away from... and that is because just for a moment - a single second in fact - the shiny veneer that Hollywood has erected over itself to stave off criticism, lifted.
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