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Nikki Blonsky talks Huge, ABC Family's latest

By April MacIntyre Jun 28, 2010, 18:35 GMT

06/13/2010 - Nikki Blonsky - "Toy Story 3" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals - The El Capitan Theater - Hollywood, CA. USA © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

Actress Nikki Blonsky is comfortable in her own skin, and plays like-minded Willamena “Will” Rader on ABC Family's newest original drama of Huge, which premieres tonight, Monday, June 28th at 9/8 central.

"Huge," a dramedy (heavier on the comedy) about a summer weight-loss camp for teenagers. The predictable jokes and situations do not happen, and what we have is a look at a genuinely interesting effort on ABC Family, which also delivered an intriguing "drama" in "Pretty Little Liars."

Awkward moments, hurt feelings masked and wistfull mindsets that wish for a thin physique that the DNA Gods fail to deliver are the grist for this mill. Weight and the loss of it is personal, and different for everyone.  The scorn of society is felt by women if they are not within a range of sizes, and perversely if they are TOO thin,  the eating disorder pendulum is rumored.

courtesy of ABC Family

Too fat or too thin, women live in the margins of weight scorn much more than men. You don't see Seth Rogen or Jonah Hill defending their multiple chins on Oprah, they get fat movie deals.

"Huge" is the latest ABC Family teen drama, scripted accordingly and full of current pop references and cast with characters that feel familiar.  Counselors who resemble Jillian Michaels of "Biggest Loser" and Camp Victory's chief medic Dr. Rand (Gina Torres), who gives the newbies the low-down on what is to be expected.

The lead actor is Will (Nikki Blonsky), with ethereal blond Amber (Hayley Hasselhoff), who in real life is a plus-sized model, which is depressing news considering she is a size 10.

Will isn't having the Camp's reprogramming, and fights to maintain the genetically gifted physique she has made peace with, ostensibly.

Monsters and Critics participated in a conference call with Nikki Blonsky about Huge, and her thoughts on the subject. The entire transcript is posted below:

Q. How did you find out about this part?

N. Blonsky Well, I found out about the part of Will through my agent and once I read the character description and I read about who she was and everything about her, I said, “I have to play this girl.  I just have to play her.”  It was very similar to me wanting and having the need to play Tracy [Turnblad in Hairspray].  I have to play this girl because she has so many things going on that I just adore her.

Q. Well you're a role model for the heavier set community.  I have to say it was amazing for you to be photographed in a bathing suit for the advertising of this campaign.  How did you feel when they were shooting you?

N. Blonsky Oh, thank you so much.  I have to say it was the most freeing experience of my life to be out there with just a bathing suit, you don't get barer than that unless you're doing Playboy and that's not happening anytime soon – not ever. 

So, I think it was the most freeing experience of my life.  Growing up you always have those little things like, “I'm in a bathing suit and I really want to go to the pool, or I want to go to the beach, but I don’t want people to see me.”  A lot of kids and adults still deal with that.  I dealt with that for a very long time until I got the part of Will and it said, day one, first shot of the day, she's taking off her clothes, stripping down to her bathing suit, she's doing a strip tease. 

When I saw the posters I was like, "Whoa,” I didn't know that it was going to be just me in the bathing suit."  So, I'm actually headed back to New York soon and I'm really shocked because there's a full one in Times Square, so from a New Yorker it's really, really sweet.

Q. How much of yourself do you bring to the character?

N. Blonsky Ironically, I bring a lot of myself to Will because when I was in a Hairspray I was 17, I was young and bubbly and the world was new to me and everything was just so fresh.  I wanted to make the world a better place and I still do.  I still hold that quality of Tracy in me.  But, like Will, I'm not as naive as Tracy and I've been around a few years now and I'm a little smarter and I get the game now.  That's where I connect with Will - I get what's going on in the world.  I see through people and I can see through the fakeness as Will does.

Q. Who would you love to see work on the show either as a guest star or as a director?

N. Blonsky Right now we don't know who Will's parents are because Will really hates her parents, because they are fitness gurus.  They're the reason she's at this camp.  They're very successful fitness gurus who send her to this camp because they don't approve of what she looks like.  So she decides, well you know what, I'm going to go to camp and do it my way.  I'm going to gain weight in camp.  If we get any guest stars, I hope my parents would be played by someone really fit like John Stamos and maybe Ricky Lake. 

Q. What are your thoughts on these summer weight-loss camps that are like the one featured in Huge.  Do you think being shipped off is positive for a kid's self esteem?

N. Blonsky I think if the kid comes to the parent and says, "You know, I really want to go and lose weight.  I've heard about this camp andI really want to go and get fit,” then that's perfectly okay.  I think if a parent is sending a child is not as okay, because if a parent is sending a child, it's sending a message to that child that the child is not good enough the way they are to their parents.  There's no worse fear, I believe, in my heart than not being good enough for my parents. 

Q. Do you ever advocate losing weight or is it more about sending out the message of being happy with who you are and things like that?

N. Blonsky Yes.  I totally advocate of being who you are, loving who you are and living and let live.  Just love what God gave you because He gave it to you for a reason. 

And you were made this way for a reason.  If you were meant to be six foot tall, skinny blonde model, than you would have been.  But I'm meant to be a 4’10” plus-size actress and I am perfectly okay and happy with that.  I think if we all just accept who we are and love who we are I think we'll all be okay.

Q. Do you think your character will soften up through the season or keep her toughness?

N. Blonsky With Will there's many, many, many layers to Will.  You will see, actually in the second episode, she softens up a bit. 

Q. Before you got attached to Huge how familiar were you with Winnie Holzman?

N. Blonsky I was really familiar with her because Paul Dooley, her husband, was Mr. Spritzer on Hairspray.  So this is my second time working with Paul, which is so incredibly amazing.  He was on my first big project of my life and now he's on my second big project. So, I was very, very aware of Winnie and Suzanna and I love them.  I love My So-Called Life.  I'm obsessed with that show.  Wilson Cruz is like the coolest thing in the world to me.  I adore him.

Q What role models on TV or movies, when you were younger, influenced you?

N. Blonsky I would have to say Camryn Manheim on The Practice.  She always influenced me because she was a plus-size woman and always just did her thing, didn't really care what people thought.  I loved her on that show and she was an extreme role model to me. 

Ricky Lake was a role model to me, ironically, since I played the same character as her in Hairspray.  I watch her talk show every single day and I love Ricky and now that we're friends it's just so funny because I look at her and I'm like, I spent so much of my childhood watching you on Hairspray and your talk show.  And also, Whoopi Goldberg was a huge, huge, huge idol for me in my career, as was Rosie O'Donnell because they are strong willed women who just are who they are. 

Q. In the scene from the first episode, Will asked why she should have to change.  Can you talk about that thought process on how you approached the character?

N. Blonsky Well, I think, Will doesn't want to change.  Will is fine with who she is.  She just wants to be left alone and listen to her music and drown herself in her rock-n-roll and her food and just be let be.  It's true when she says, "Everyone wants us to hate our bodies."  It's true because the media makes it seem as though you have to be a size two if you want to be an actress or that that's the normal size. 

Kids read that and I've experienced meeting fans and family members, my cousins who are younger than me, who are like 10 and say, "Oh I have to go on a diet."  I'm like, what?  And they say, "Well, everybody in this magazine looks like this."  I try and explain to them that what's in the magazines is not, sometimes, what's in real life. 

Q. What kinds of barriers you hope that Huge breaks from a superficial perspective when compared to other teen-geared shows like 90210 or Gossip Girl?

N. Blonsky I hope that there are a lot more plus-size characters as love interests, as everything, as all the different roles.  I hope it just breaks all the boundaries in Hollywood.  I think this is the first time we've ever had a plus-size cast in a TV show.  So, I couldn't be more honored than to be part of this one.

Q. Will your character actually get in the spirit of losing weight?

N. Blonsky Yes.  My character and I definitely have to do the exercises because we are at this fitness camp.  But, I think, you'll see that that my character really doesn’t conform to what all the other kids do.  My character, even after she’s made fun of for days for wearing boys' clothes, having blue hair and not wearing any makeup, she doesn't care.  She doesn't change and put on girls clothing or put on lipstick.  She says, "Well, you know what, I am who I am and if you don't like it you can leave it."  And that's what I love about her.

Q. What is the type of language you use in the show for these sensitive subjects?

N. Blonsky We use plus-sizes.  We use Fitness Camp, stuff like that.  We try to stay away from Fat Camps because nobody wants to be called the f word; it's just not a nice word.  I've been called it too much growing up so I'm not going to be called it now in my 20s.

Q. What age did that happen for you and what was the process of getting to that point like?

N. Blonsky Well, I have to tell you, I totally give all of that credit to my parents.  They raised me with the knowledge of ever since I was a little girl, growing up, you're our beautiful little girl.  They would call me that every single day.  I would have to say growing up with that knowledge, it really helped.  I'm going to be 22-years-old, I'm 21 right now and they still tell me every day, "You're our beautiful little girl."  I never saw my weight as an issue until I got to school and kids started picking on me and I was like, why are kids picking on me?  I didn't understand it because I was told that I was beautiful at home. 

My grandmother, God rest her soul, she said to me, and this is something that I'll take with me forever.  She said, "Nikki, kids make fun of you because they're insecure with themselves."  I decided I came up with the notion, well, if it makes those kids feel better about themselves by making fun of me and I'm totally comfortable with myself than that's my gift to them.

Q. How did you stay motivated to really make it in Hollywood and be successful when you knew that Hollywood is full of size two actresses?

N. Blonsky Because, I think, at the end of the day talent will always prevail.  I think most people will be remembered for what roles they played and how they played them and what personalities they had and what they were like, not what they looked like.  And so I think that's the mark you leave on Hollywood. 

People have told me if you want to get a job you need to lose weight and I said, “Okay, really, than you're not the person to be around me because I am who I am and I am this way for a reason.”  I just say live life.  If I wake up tomorrow morning and feel like losing five pounds than maybe I will.  If I don't, I won't.  But I just live life on my standards, on what I believe in and how I feel about my body and I feel great about my body.  I'm very secure in it.  I have no problem doing anything, going to the beach, going to the pool.  It's my body, it's mine.  It's the only thing I can call mine at the end of the day.

Q. Do you prefer doing movies or TV shows?

N. Blonsky Oh, my gosh.  They're so different.  One's the chicken, one's the egg, what came first?  I have to say they're so different.  It's like; do you want beef or chicken for dinner?  They're both good.  Ironically, I'm comparing this to food. [laughs]  I love them both, really I do.  TV is a very fast paced and I've learned that it moves much quicker than film.  I like the slowness of film better, but I really enjoy TV and I'm having a blast.

Q. What do you make of heavy set male actors like Jonah Hill or Seth Rogen, don’t seem to have the availability of roles limited to them? , Do you recognize any kind of difference for females who happens to be plus-size in terms of that?

N. Blonsky Yes.  I think there's way more roles for plus-size guys than plus-size females right now in Hollywood which kind of stinks for us girls.  But I definitely, I do agree with you and thank you for bringing that up.  I do believe that there's way more roles for plus-size men than plus-size females because they're looking for the punch line, their looking for the joke and their looking for the funny guys.  Whereas the girls, you know, it's a different story.

Q. Do you think this show will be inspiring for plus-size women and do you think that you could truly send a message of loving your body in a setting where you go to change your body?

N. Blonsky Absolutely.  I think it's all about how you portray your characters, how you play the characters, its how you make them fall in love with the characters.  I think by the second episode that you're going to forget that you're even watching kids at a weight-loss camp.  I think you're going to become so invested in what the characters are doing and what relationships are going on and what's happening.  I think all of that is going to become so interest into the audience that what's going on with the weight issue is not even going to become a big issue anymore.  It's just going to be another thing on the list because I think the relationships and all of that stuff is going to outweigh the weight itself.

Q. Will this show inspire the plus-size women to be confident in their skin?

N. Blonsky Absolutely, 100% because my character, I know for sure does not conform.  She will not conform to losing weight.  She will not conform to trying to look pretty like all of the other girls.  She is herself, 100% and that's why I love her and that's why I feel so blessed to be playing her.  There's no greater role to play than somebody that can be inspiring to somebody else.

Q, Do you have any interest on being on Glee?

N. Blonsky Absolutely.  That's something I would love to do.

Q What is most important thing you've learned about self confidence, from filming Huge, what would you tell a teenager?

N. Blonsky I would hug them first because I'm a big hugger and I would tell them just be you and enjoy your body and enjoy your life.  Just enjoy everything because you only get one chance at life so just have a good time with it.  It doesn't matter what size you are.  Really just love your body because it's yours.  It's the only thing that you really have that is yours.

Q. What do you think teen girls could spend their time talking about, if they weren’t always talking about their weight and dieting?

N. Blonsky I think they should be talking about positive things, having fun with their friends, what they're going to do on the weekends, you know.  I don't they should be worried about their weight or their looks.  I think teen girls should just be enjoying their teen years because they fly by.

Q. Have you experienced weight discrimination against you or have you heard any stories or anything like that or run into anything like that?

N. Blonsky Yes, I had an agent look me in the eye and tell me well if you want to get roles in this town you need to drop at least 100 pounds and I said, oh really?  She said, yes,  I looked at her and I said well you're not my agent and I walked away from her because if you don't get me then you don't get why I'm the way I am than you can't be part of my life.  It's like, I am who I am and I'm proud of who I am and that's just how it is and this was when I was, I didn't have an agent when I got Hairspray so this is when I was, I don't want to say auditioning for agents, but seeing different agents.

Q. Regarding the remarks made about Gabourey Sidibe and how she won't succeed in Hollywood if she stays the weight she is.  What goes on through your mind when you hear something like that?

N. Blonsky I think it's so ridiculous and just so hurtful to her.  Please, if anybody at all is listening that knows Gabourey, I would love to meet her and just hug her because I feel terrible that he said that.  I'm so proud of her for her role in Precious, she is awesome and she is an amazing actress.  I think it was a terrible, rude comment that he made.  People like that need to curb their tongues a little more and even if they have their opinions sometimes keep them to themselves because sometimes they can be really, really, really hurtful.  I don't think that comment was necessary.

Q. What do you think of the cyber bullying that is becoming more rampant?

N. Blonsky The cyber bullying needs to stop.  It has to stop.  Kids are killing themselves at such young ages over ridiculous things.  Other kids are calling them names and torturing them online, and it has to stop because lives are being taken at a way too young of an age.  I will be the first one to stand up against it and say it has to stop now.

Q. What is the biggest challenge in being a lead for a TV show?

N. Blonsky Well, it's not as much hard as it is fun.  I mean it's definitely a lot of work, a lot of lines that have to be memorized.  But, it’s amazing just knowing that you are guiding this great group of people on this beautiful journey and it's on a screen for hundreds and thousands and millions of people to see each week.  That's the best part about it.