At least one Frasier star feels guilty about the controversial fat suit storyline in the series. Actress Jane Leeves, who played Daphne Moon, said the storyline has become “quite controversial.” Daphne was the live-in physical therapist and caretaker for Frasier’s father, Martin Crane. During the series, she develops a romantic relationship with Frasier’s brother, Niles.
On the latest episode of Dinner’s On Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Leeves discussed wearing a fat suit to conceal her real-life pregnancy. When asked if there was anything that was difficult to write about in her new memoir Daphne & Me: My Life on Frasier (And a Bit More), she replied, “Yeah. The pregnancy, when they put me in the fat suit, right, which became, you know, those were different times, but it became sort of quite controversial.”
“I did not have small babies—mine were big babies—and, you know, I had a laundry basket [in front of me], but that wasn’t cutting it,” she said. “And they didn’t want me to get pregnant on the show, because it was just the beginning of Niles and Daphne getting together.”
Instead of writing Leeves’ pregnancy into the show, the writers had Daphne gain 60 pounds because of stress-related overeating as her relationship with Niles developed.
Jane Leeves reflects on the Frasier fat suit storyline and changing attitudes toward women’s bodies in Hollywood
Looking back on the storyline, Leeves said the treatment of women’s bodies in the entertainment industry has changed since the show aired.
“It’s interesting because it was during that time when women’s bodies were sort of dissected in the press all the time, as well,” she noted on the podcast. “You know, you go to an award show and you’d look at pictures of you the next day saying, ‘Oh, too thin, you know, too…’ It was sort of normalized, right? But you look back now, and you go, ‘God, you just thought it was part of the job, right, to be judged in that way, right?’”
Leeves continued: “And then, you know, I do feel sort of guilt about that whole fat suit thing, but as I say, at the time, it was just normalized.” Leeves acknowledged that she could have challenged the decision but said doing so would have been impossible because she was grateful to work with the show’s “geniuses.”
Frasier can currently be streamed on Prime Video.
Originally reported on ComingSoon.net.
