ACS Impeachments Linda Tripp Fat Suit Controversy Explained

ACS: Impeachment’s Linda Tripp Fat Suit Controversy Explained

Ahead of the season’s premiere, American Crime Story: Impeachment is facing controversy over Sarah Paulson wearing a fat suit to portray Linda Tripp.

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ACS Impeachments Linda Tripp Fat Suit Controversy Explained

The upcoming season of American Crime Story: Impeachment documents the real-life Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and his subsequent impeachment, though recent controversy about the series has pointed out Sarah Paulson wearing a fat suit while portraying Linda Tripp. The upcoming Ryan Murphy TV show takes place in the latter half of the 1990s, following young White House intern Monica Lewinsky as she enters a secret relationship with President Bill Clinton amid several public allegations and lawsuits of him sexually harassing and assaulting women. Once the news of their affair hits the public, Monica becomes scrutinized by the press and larger society alike as she goes up against the most powerful man in the world.

Less focused on the president himself, American Crime Story: Impeachment follows the women that were involved in the events leading to the first presidential impeachment in over a century, particularly Monica, her coworker Linda Tripp, and literary agent Lucianne Goldberg. Much of the drama in the real-life impeachment was revealed when Linda Tripp, who had become Monica Lewinsky’s closest confidant in D.C., began to record their phone conversations about Bill and eventually leaked them to both government authorities and Goldberg in hopes of writing a book. As history shows, the women, especially Lewinsky and Tripp, received much more harassment, humiliation, and detriment to their careers from the ordeal than Clinton himself.

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As plenty of promos have been released for Ryan Murphy’s upcoming season, many have noted the problematic nature of Sarah Paulson portraying plus-size Linda Tripp instead of an actress who actually corresponds to Tripp’s real-life physique. The casting and subsequent use of a fat suit, plus actual weight gain and prosthetics, to bring Tripp to the screen has begged the question of why Hollywood wouldn’t simply cast an actress of the appropriate size. Many have pointed out that this follows in Hollywood’s trend of fat-phobia where thin actors don insulting fat suits, like the one worn by Chris Hemsworth’s Fat Thor in Avengers: Endgame, instead of hiring people who naturally fit the criteria. American Crime Story’s controversial casting choice continues the debate about the lack of diverse body types in Hollywood.

Ryan Murphy cast Sarah Paulson for obvious reasons, as she’s already an Emmy-winning actress most notable for their frequent collaborations, where she has time and again proven her ability to transform herself into characters portraying real-life people. Linda Tripp’s body type was also significant in her story surrounding the impeachment and her subsequent treatment by media and press, where Saturday Night Live even featured an insulting skit where she is portrayed by actor John Goodman. At the same time, the criticisms of AHS’s Sarah Paulson wearing a fat suit may not be completely founded considering she gained 30 pounds for the role and the fat suit only added 5 pounds needed to imitate Tripp’s body shape. Though, with the importance of her weight in the story, ACS: Impeachment could have made a more true-to-life choice by casting someone who already has Tripp’s body type.

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Sarah Paulson also responded to the controversy, acknowledging that the criticisms are legitimate and the conversation surrounding Hollywood’s fatphobia and continual use of fat suits needs to be had. She pointed out that while she regrets donning the padded suit, she still believes something in her being made her the right person to play the character and that part of cinema is the magic of hair, makeup, and costumers. Paulson also noted that she’s still not sure if this means she should have taken the upcoming American Crime Story role or not due to her size, explaining that an actor’s role shouldn’t be reduced to their body size. While it’s too late to go back and cast another actress as Linda Tripp, American Crime Story’s controversy is still getting the ball rolling on the conversation of body diversity in Hollywood that is necessary moving forward.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/acs-impeachment-linda-tripp-sarah-paulson-fat-suit-controversy/

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