Melissa McCarthy doesn't believe a "perfect woman" exists.
Melissa McCarthy
The 45-year-old comedic actress - who made her TV debut in NBC series 'Jenny' - has admitted that she doesn't have one single role model because she believes it to be "fictitious", and instead finds inspiration in women of all different shapes and sizes.
Speaking to Refinery29 about being a muse for plus-sized females and her personal icons, she said: "I know I am not the 'norm.' It never occurs to me in terms of being a role model, though, because I don't know any perfect women. If I, off the top of my head, name 20 of the most amazing women in my life, it's all shapes, sizes, ages, colours, jobs.
"What people pass off as 'normal,' I just have to keep in my head that it's b******t. It's all fictitious, made-up stuff. I know some of those women in those magazines who get called perfect or whose butt is supposedly better, and often they don't even look like that in person. And they would die - they don't want you to compare who wore it better. They would be more horrified than anybody else that you're pitting them against each other and judging. You don't do that with guys."
The honest-talking star also voiced her annoyance towards the body-shaming that some females face.
She said: "I want to get rid of constantly categorising. Lists give somebody a way to shove and tear down women. Those women that are always shown, that we're all supposed to be like, is like .000009 per cent of human beings. That's crazy.
"There are so many more intriguing things about women than their butt or their this or their that."
Melissa - who studied textiles at university and would have embarked on a career in fashion if her acting had failed - expects to be a yo-yo dieter for her whole life.
She said: "I have lost weight, but I'll be back again. I'll be up, I'll be down, probably for the rest of my life."
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