Everybody loves Melissa McCarthy, whether she's playing hilarious characters in the movies or secretly smuggling 30 ham sandwiches into the Golden Globes in case anyone is hungry. This year she lost 75 pounds to play a role in the comedy-drama Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which earned rave reviews. Yes, McCarthy is doing pretty well these days, but that wasn't always the case.
In a new cover story for InStyle, the actress opened about an incident where an obtuse reporter wouldn't stop talking about her "tremendous size." "I do remember another interview I did for Bridesmaids with somebody who later lost his job for a conversation he had on a bus with someone else," McCarthy told the magazine. "I won’t mention names, but just think about it. He kept asking, 'Are you shocked that you actually work in this business at your tremendous size?'"
McCarthy said the interviewer continued to ask offensive questions, such as "Oh, your tremendous size, you can actually work?" At that point, she said she could feel "all the blood [drain]" out of her body. "I thought, 'With my tremendous size, I could tackle you so quickly,'" said the Spy actress. "There were two cameras on him, and one was on me, and he went back to that question three or four times, and I just kept talking about the script or how fun [director] Paul Feig was. He was looking around like, 'She’s crazy.'"
Even the producer working on the segment felt uncomfortable with the reporter's questions. McCarthy told InStyle, "When we left, their producer was horrified and said, 'We’ll never play what he said. I’m so sorry.'" (This explains why the cringeworthy video isn't on YouTube.)
McCarthy described the interviewer as "somebody who later lost his job for a conversation he had on a bus with someone else." That's apparently a reference to Billy Bush and the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood video tape, in which he and Donald Trump have a crude, misogynistic discussion about women. "I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything," said Trump. "Whatever you want," said Bush. "Grab them by the p****y. You can do anything," Trump added.
The outrageous footage leaked in October 2016, one month before the presidential election. But rather than sink his campaign, Trump went on to win the electoral college, becoming the next commander-in-chief. (Apparently, boasting about sexual assault is bad, but Hillary Clinton using a private email server was the real scandal.) Trump's words sparked a furious backlash that still haunts him today, yet he faced no consequences. However, Billy Bush got fired from The Today Show, a job he took in the summer of 2016 after years of hosting Access Hollywood.
Well, assuming that reporter was Billy Bush, at least karma caught up to him for that interview.