Beanie Feldstein stopped by the Variety After Show, presented by National Geographic, for a virtual chat about her new movie “How to Build a Girl.” She talks about having a lead role for the first time and putting on a English accent, but got serious talking about refusing to be typecast for her body size.
“The only thing I ever heard when I was younger, because I was chubby and I love to sing, was ‘Have you ever played Tracy Turnblad?'” she says, referencing the typically plus-size “Hairspray” character. “I love [“Hairspray”], but for some reason, I heard that so much growing up that it became a sore spot for me. Why can I only be this? I can be anything I want. What about the baker’s wife in ‘Into the Woods’? Or Winnifred in ‘Once Upon a Mattress’? Or one day, Amy in ‘Company’? What about all these other roles I would love to play, and why am I excluded from them because of my dress size or whatever it might be?”
