This post contains discussion of eating disorders and body image issues.
If you’re of a certain age — or, if you’re just a really hardcore TV head — you probably know all about Ally McBeal, the hit dramedy that aired for five seasons from 1997 to 2002.
So, while Ally McBeal was a big cultural thing, there was a lot of media speculation about Calista’s body, which was — obviously — really fucked up.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Calista addressed a specific rumor from that time: That she was struggling with anorexia nervosa, which Johns Hopkins Medicine describes as “an eating disorder that causes a severe and strong fear of gaining weight.”
“I loved working on Ally McBeal, and it just made it sour,” she said while discussing the rumors. “I was very sleep-deprived and I was depressed about it. I did think that it was going to ruin my career.”
“I didn’t think anybody would ever hire me again, because they would just assume I had anorexia, and that would be the end of that.”
Calista also said that the errant speculation meant that she “had days where I was really hurt and embarrassed and infuriated. I was lucky that I had to work.”
“I just put my head down. I always felt like, ‘Calista, you’re a good person, you’re not mean to anybody,’ and I’m confident in that.”
Calista also suggested that such speculation wouldn’t take place today, and was a result of past attitudes toward body image.
“They call it body-shaming now,” she said. “I haven’t thought about it in a long time, but it’s really not OK to accuse someone of having a disease that a lot of people struggle with.”
You can read the entire interview here.
