Fat Actors
Give me more Jack Black
With GLP-1 use going full steam ahead and a lot of bigger actors shrinking before our eyes, it made me so happy to see Jack Black and others larger than life in the new A Minecraft Movie (Warner Bros). (You can watch the trailer here.)
No, it wasn’t a cinematic masterpiece. But my kids wanted to go, and the arms in our movie theater seats go up, making room for my ample body, so I can spend the length of a movie semi-comfortable.
Jack Black plays the character Steve, who discovers the world of the Minecraft video game and falls in love with building whatever his heart desires. Here are a couple of the points that stood out to me after watching the film.
Jack Black inhabits his whole body.
I don’t know if he would consider himself to be a fat actor, but he is larger than the Hollywood ideal. In A Minecraft Movie, there is no attempt to slim the character’s body. In fact, he wears a rather “unflattering” turquoise unisex polo shirt, and it is awesome.
The movie includes another larger actor, Danielle Brooks.
Known for her roles in “Orange is the New Black” and The Color Purple (2023), Brooks also does not fit the Hollywood thin ideal. I was grateful for her inclusion in the film, even if I did get annoyed by her being pigeonholed into the “friend/mom-figure” role when she is clearly a STAR.
There is body humor but no fat jokes.
There is plenty of situational body humor throughout the movie, but neither Jack Black’s body nor Danielle Brooks’s body is ever the butt of the joke for its size. I probably don’t have to say this because you know it already, but this is so unusual for a movie to do!
I kinda like Jason Momoa now?
I have always been resistant to Jason Momoa, probably because he inhabits what some think of as the “ideal masculine” body—large but muscular, not flabby. I admit that I struggle not to judge people who look like Momoa. (I tend to think they move through the world with fewer problems than me and I resent that.) But this movie really got me on the JM train, even if his acting was mid-to-fair. He knows how to enjoy himself and not take himself too seriously.
Friendship is at the heart of A Minecraft Movie, along with a lot of humor and cool special effects. I heartily recommend it.
Peace to you,
Amanda Martinez Beck