How ‘GLOW’ Helped Alison Brie’s Relationship With Her Body
Dealing with body issues is a problem that far too many actors go through, no matter if female or male. The pressure to look a certain way in the world of showbiz has never really stopped, unfortunately, if more awareness of embracing real body shapes.
Alison Brie is one actress who went through quite a few challenges in thinking she never looked good enough. Working on the women wrestling series GLOW, however, gave her a new body outlook in how she works on the set of movies/TV.
Some interesting insights now come from her changed opinion about body aesthetics. Many of her views on how women are viewed will hopefully be passed on to other actresses who think they always have to look like a producer’s fantasy.
Who does Alison Brie play on ‘GLOW’?
Brie plays Ruth Wilder on Netflix’s GLOW through all of its four seasons. It tells the story of Ruth who happens to be an unemployed actress in the early ’80s, finding work eventually as a woman wrestler in the once real Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling organization. Her experiences with that only grow wilder, if also empowering over time.
Perhaps a bit of meta hangs in the air with the show since it almost mimics what Brie has gone through in real life. Her experiences as an actress led to a lack of body positivity due to many producers/directors exploiting women’s body shapes.
She went through all of this, if also dealing with personal issues like depression, according to an interview in Women’s Health recently. In that interview, she also described how GLOW reshaped how she views her body thanks to her fellow cast and her trainers.
One quote from the above interview stands out about her experiences on GLOW: “It helped with my relationship to my body times a million. Before, I always felt at odds with it; I wanted it to be something it wasn’t. But I didn’t have the tools to do that in a healthy way.”
Alison Brie gives credit to her trainer
Jason Walsh has been Brie’s trainer through all her time acting on GLOW. Starting out, Brie had fought through body dysmorphia, a typical condition where someone thinks they always look out of shape when not. Nowadays, Brie says she looks back at red carpet photos and thinks she looked beautiful when, at the time, she always thought she looked “disgusting”.
Trying to overcome this in a TV show dealing with fit women going into the wrestling ring for entertainment was already a brave move. When working with Walsh, Brie managed to get herself in the best possible shape with the right tools and without starving herself.
Giving that positive body image enabled her to build up enough endurance where she says she never has faced a body injury while filming GLOW. At the same time, it enabled her to make her body fit enough to do limited stunts on her own for her own self-confidence.
Whether this means using those physical skills in another project remains to be seen. With GLOW winding up this season, can Brie find another show or movie combining fitness with dramatic acting?
Her healthy habits will likely help her through the rest of her career
Thankfully, the perception of body shape is beginning to change somewhat in Hollywood, despite many women still forced to look skinny. Working with her trainer enabled Brie to do strength training and break the myth it makes a woman look too bulky.
Besides, her diet has also been streamlined, leading to further healthy habits, not including daily workouts with yoga. All of this should reinforce her mind and body for whatever comes next after GLOW.
With several projects coming up involving elements of stunt work, Brie may continue using her body physically while influencing all the young actresses going through what she once did.
