UMM most amazing interview I’ve ever read. A creative team writing for a show on cable television that actually GETS fat acceptance and wants to promote self-acceptance in ALL of its forms in a nuanced, not overly-cheesy way??? RADICAL, AMAZING, AWESOME, ETC.
For example:
Lesley: Give us a little background on your relationship with size acceptance and body politics, and how this played into the development of Huge.
Savannah: I started reading size acceptance blogs when I was first writing Huge as a movie, in an effort to better understand what it was like to move through the world at a bigger size. I’ve always been roughly the size of an Amber or Chloe– feeling bigger than a girl is supposed to be, dangerously obsessed with my weight, but still with thin-person privilege. I shop at straight-size stores, bullies never targeted me for my weight, no one questions my health from looking at me. So for research I was seeking out weight-related books and articles and blogs, even during the long stretches when I wasn’t actively working on the script, and at the same time I was getting more into feminist blogs for fun (because what’s more fun than analyzing systematic oppression?!) and of course body image and size acceptance issues come up a lot in those spaces. So over the 2-3 years I was working on different drafts of Huge, I was also discovering size acceptance, and the tone of Huge and Will’s character evolved in that direction. Will was always defiant about her size but she became more radical and articulated her views more clearly. I felt a responsibility to give a voice to size acceptance, and as I grew to believe more fully in Will’s stance and her motivations, the character became stronger.
L: Fat people. On television. SO MANY OF THEM. Why? Did you wake up one day and think, “I”m putting a bunch of amazing fat people on TV! In a camp setting, so they will frequently be in varying states of undress! It will BLOW EVERYONE’S MINDS!” Did you plan to create something that overtly confronted what passes for “normal” bodies on TV? How did this happen?
S: A lot of people assume I brought this idea to ABC Family, which makes sense because it’s something I’m passionate about, but it was actually their concept. They found the book and wanted to do an original movie with two girls at weight loss camp. I see how the show looks now and it feels incredibly subversive in the way it shows bodies, but when I first signed on, I didn’t understand yet how kind of mind-blowing it would be. I guess I was protecting myself a bit by not really daring to imagine the finished product, because at that time I had no guarantee it’d be made.
But the idea of the camp setting felt incredible to me because the idea of the token chubby person would be out the window. The characters would by necessity be set apart from each other for other aspects than their size. I’m so sick of people on TV looking homogenous, and not just in terms of size.
Read the whole post here.
Also, the second season of HUGE is in no way a sure thing. Please email ABC Family and tell them you want to keep it on: http://abcfamily.go.com/site/feedback
These fat kids (and a million more across the country) thank you. :)
It’s a GREAT interview! I love Huge.