Gwyneth Paltrow's Shallow Hal Body Double Claims She Almost Starved to Death Aft
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00:00 Are you sure that's what you want to do?
00:02 (upbeat music)
00:04 ♪ La la ♪
00:05 ♪ Coco ♪
00:07 - A shocking omission from Gwyneth Paltrow's body double
00:10 for shallow Hal, Ivy Snitzer,
00:12 who now claims she developed an eating disorder
00:15 after the movie wrapped.
00:16 - Okay, not only do you have to work really hard
00:18 all the time, but you also have to be,
00:20 constantly be beautiful, constantly be funny.
00:22 It's an impossibility.
00:23 - Ivy opens up to the Guardian
00:24 about her serious health battles,
00:26 including body image issues and risky weight loss surgeries,
00:30 all of which followed the comedy's premiere
00:32 over 20 years ago.
00:34 - From this moment on,
00:35 whenever you meet someone in the future,
00:37 you're only gonna see what's inside them.
00:40 - In the movie, Jack Black plays a man
00:42 who, after undergoing hypnosis,
00:44 sees Gwyneth's character as what the Oscar winner
00:46 looks like in real life.
00:48 - No matter what I eat, my weight just seems to stay the same.
00:51 - Meanwhile, her appearance is actually
00:53 then 20-year-old Ivy.
00:55 And at times, it's also Gwyneth wearing a body suit
00:58 and makeup prosthetics.
01:00 - With me, it's not something that I can take off.
01:02 It's just part of who I am.
01:04 - Were you at all, in any way,
01:05 offended by anything you read in the script?
01:07 - No, not at all.
01:08 I thought it was really, really funny
01:09 and just such a really sweet story.
01:11 I really liked it.
01:13 - That's Ivy speaking with E.T.
01:14 after "Shallow Hal" hit theaters.
01:16 - And the whole set was so fun.
01:18 Just the whole thing, like the whole atmosphere
01:19 was just amazing all the time.
01:21 Gwyneth is so incredible.
01:23 She's such an amazing icon.
01:25 - And Ivy, she still has positive memories
01:27 from behind the scenes, where the cast and crew,
01:29 quote, "treated me like I really matter."
01:32 - What it's saying is she's fat,
01:33 but she's such an incredible person
01:36 that inside her heart looks like Gwyneth Paltrow.
01:40 I think that's the most wonderful thing in the world.
01:42 It's just the idea of just absolute inner beauty.
01:46 - But off the set, that's when Ivy felt societal pressure
01:49 to lose weight, leading her to undergo
01:52 gastric bypass surgery, a procedure
01:54 that was ultimately botched.
01:56 And Ivy claims at one point in the aftermath,
01:58 she was technically starving to death.
02:01 - I'm really happy to be me.
02:02 - Ivy's doing much better these days,
02:04 leaving Hollywood behind and now married with a daughter.
02:07 (thunder rumbling)
02:10 - It was about how we judge people by the way they look,
02:19 and we don't really go beyond just their physical appearance
02:23 and it had some cool resonance in that way.
02:26 People still compliment me on that movie
02:28 and I think that's why it struck a chord.
02:30 - Of course, in 2023, some might say
02:32 the movie's good intentions have a bad look.
02:35 ♪ All you want better be in ♪
02:39 As for Gwyneth?
02:41 - What is my least favorite performance?
02:44 - I would say would be "Shallow Hallow."
02:47 - Exactly.
02:49 That was before your time.
02:52 See what happened.
02:53 - Disaster.
02:54 - My personality and my size, it's all the same person.
02:57 (dramatic music)
03:00 (upbeat music)