Becca McCoy's audition tape for NBC’s This Is Us made it to the producers in Los Angeles, but in the end, she simply wasn't fat enough. The role of the severely obese woman, Kate, went to Chrissy Metz, a woman who was much larger than McCoy.
She was too small to play the part of an obese woman, but also too heavy for her Lady in the Lake costume for last spring's Spamalot with American Stage — they had to build her a custom costume.
Something had to give. She'd gained weight — 97 pounds — while pregnant with her daughter, who was almost 8. She'd always told herself, being heavy opened doors for her, theatrically, but eight years is a long time to carry baby weight.
She joined Weight Watchers.
"They [American Stage] were very adamant that that was not a requirement for them; that they had cast me as is and I didn't have to change in any way," she says, but adds she didn't do it for them. "I wanted to do it for me."
Being big had worked professionally for Becca, and she used her local and regional successes to avoid losing weight.
"I used lots of excuses, that it changed my career for the better, it gave me different kinds of show opportunities and less competition, so I lived in that world for many years, and then wanted to feel better about myself when I was cast as Lady in the Lake," she said. But then she didn't get cast as the fat girl in This Is Us. The way she explains it is not that she didn't get the part, it was why she didn't get the part.
"I was never that large, ever," she says "My argument was invalid... [S]taying big was not a solution because you can be not big enough, you can be not small enough. My ‘Why’ has to be anchored in something that I control, which is the confidence I have as a storyteller and not whether or not someone else judges me, because they will assess me however they do."
The “Why” comes from Weight Watchers: "Keep your why close by" leaders tell people. Remember why you want to lose weight. And Becca realized her ‘Why’ toward the end of her journey — at a GASP! promo shoot.
"GASP! is tied to my Weight Watchers story, which is cool. As with many amazing things in my life and career, I didn't actually know what I was agreeing to when I said yes, I would do this project for Sheila [Cowley]. I thought I would be reading a piece, kind of like you do at Fantastic Ekphrastic," she says.
Turns out, she had to dance, too — which she didn't know when she showed up for the promo shoot in three-inch heels and a strapless bra.
"I wasn't prepared to move," she says. But move she did — an improvisational dance piece and, after the shoot, she got in the car and texted her friend, Juliana Davis (now appearing in Informed Consent):
"Today's theme at Weight Watchers was your 'Why' — and I had taken for granted that I knew my ‘Why,’ and this morning I couldn't articulate it beyond 'I wanted not to see that number on the scale anymore...'
"Then I went to the promo shoot for GASP!... I performed an improv dance piece with a professional dancer which was videotaped, and never once thought 'I can't do this' or 'I'm going to look fat'... I never once got out of my head from the storytelling. And THAT'S my ‘Why.’”
Since joining Weight Watchers on January 22, 2016, Becca McCoy has lost 102.8 pounds. And while she won't get cast in those stereotypical "big girl" roles, she's hopeful her career will blossom.
"A lot of the roles for bigger people are because you're bigger, and I felt like I was not always cast as human beings that were as interesting as actual human beings are," she says. At a callback earlier this month, and artistic director she'd known for 15 years — but hadn't seen recently — introduced himself to her.
"It will be a real interesting journey this year as I reintroduce myself," she says.
For more on GASP!, go to gasptampa.com.
