Queen Latifah asked to lose weight for roles

Queen Latifah has been asked to lose weight for acting roles.

The 51-year-old star admitted she felt “angry” when people tried to “pressure” her into changing her body for certain roles, but she’s glad she had the right people around her for support.

Speaking to plus size model Hunter McGrady for Yahoo! Life, she said: “I have felt that pressure and I’ve literally been asked to lose weight, through my people the word came.

“Luckily, I have people who are like, ‘Yeah, that’s not going to happen. She’s not losing weight for you’.

“It made me angry because I felt like I was fine. I’m what people look like.”

Latifah – who didn’t specify the roles she was asked to lose weight for – insisted it was important for her not to change so that she can represent women who look like her.

She explained: “You want me to lose weight? Why? So there’s a whole bunch of women out there who won’t have someone to relate to on TV, is that what you’re trying to get at?

“Honestly, I knew by me standing up, I was actually standing up for some other people. Get to know yourself, not just in the mirror, but on the inside.

“So now you have even more power to make decisions about your own body and how you really feel about it.”

Latifah also insisted the issues surrounding the stigma attached to obesity come from people being “misinformed or uninformed”.

She said: “If they could understand what is really underlying it, including ourselves. Judging ourselves, shaming ourselves, saying we’re not good enough, we haven’t worked hard enough, we didn’t try enough.

“No, sometimes it’s not you, it is your genetics. It is your DNA. It’s your body.”