Melissa McCarthy won't stand for sexism.
When the movie star was at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2014, a critic who had written a scathing review of Tammy approached her to praise the movie she was there to promote, St. Vincent. "Are you the one who wrote I was only a good actor when I looked more attractive and that my husband [Ben Falcone] should never be allowed to direct me because he allowed me to look so homely?" the Spy actress, 44, recalls asking the critic in Entertainment Weekly's May 22, 2015 issue.
The critic admitted he was. "Would you say that to any guy?" she asked. "When John C. Reilly—or any actor—is playing a character that is depressed and dejected, would you say, 'Well, you look terrible!?'"
McCarthy, one of the Hollywood's most bankable actresses, then asked if he had a daughter, which he does. "Watch what you say to her," she warned. "Do you tell her she's only worthwhile or valid when she's pretty?"
The actress calls such instances of sexism "an intense sickness."
"For someone who has two daughters, I'm wildly aware of how deep that rabbit hole goes. But I just don't want to start listening to that stuff," McCarthy continues. "I'm trying to take away the double standard of 'You're an unattractive bitch because your character was not skipping along in high heels.'"
These days, McCarthy avoids reading negative press. "I've stopped because I finally said, 'This is not making me better. This hurts my heart,'" the Michelle Darnell actress explains to Entertainment Weekly.
Early reviews for her upcoming movie Spy, it turns out, are favorable.
McCarthy didn't even have to audition for the role.
Director Paul Feig had mentioned his script for Spy at a dinner he was having with his wife, Falcone and McCarthy. "I wouldn't let him off the topic. The more he told me, the more I needed to know what happened next," says McCarthy, whom Feig didn't initially consider due to her TV commitment. "Finally, by the end of dinner I was like, 'I need to read it.' The next morning I called him and begged to play her."
McCarthy didn't have to wait long.
"The minute she said she wanted to do it," Feig says, "it was a done deal."