‘Fargo’ star Allison Tolman, who played Molly Solverson, went on a Twitter rant demanding Hollywood writers remove jokes about weight and other superficial features from their scripts, saying they were “unkind” to characters, actors and the audience and crew.
She continued the thread by detailing exactly what topics should be off-limits to writers, such as “the numbers on a scale,” “what someone eats,” “what size their clothing is,” and “exercise and movements.”
However, even that’s not enough, according to Tolman. She further tweeted that no body descriptors should never be mentioned, and encouraged writers to remove “character descriptions and the names of minor roles” altogether.
The actress also had a particular issue with descriptions of small bodies, saying that while most people consider “skinny intern” to be a complementary way to describe someone, auditioning for the part is somehow “weird.”
She concluded her rant by pointing out that unless such descriptions are included in a character’s lines, they are only seen by the people working on producing the film, such as cast, crew, and executives.
While some agreed with the actress’ position, many Twitter users pointed out that the logic in Tolman’s tweets would suggest that any and all jokes could be considered “unkind” and that such an approach would eventually lead to jokes being banned outright.