Gabourey Sidibe Talks Weight Loss and Reveals She Used to Work as a Phone Sex Operator

The actress was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Precious

By Corinne Heller Mar 09, 2017 9:19 PMTags
Watch: Gabourey Sidibe Proud of Her Sex Scene on "Empire"

Gabourey Sidibe struggled with weight and other personal issues before she became famous. She also had a rather surprising job.

Before making her acting debut in the 2009 film Precious, which earned her an Oscar nomination, the 33-year-old worked as a phone sex operator for three years. She told Nylon, which features her in an April 2017 cover story, that she subconsciously uses her sex voice when she orders room service.

Sidibe, also known for her roles on American Horror Story and Empire, made headlines last summer when she debuted a thinner figure. She recently revealed she had undergone laproscopic bariatric surgery after she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. She details her weight and other personal struggles in her memoir This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare, which is set for release in May.

photos
Celebrity Weight Loss

Sidibe told Nylon her father used to call her "Fatso" and beat her as a child. She said she was bullied in school and bullied people herself, "because it hurt." She talked about how she used to battle bulimia and suffer from panic attacks and depression.

After her surgery, her appetite decreased because her stomach had shrunk and she lost weight.

"You don't get to talk about my body if you like it or not; it's my body," she told Nylon. "And yeah, I have been struggling with weight my entire life. I realize that as long as I have a body, it will be a struggle."

Nowadays, Sidibe eats healthier and exercises—she even uses an Apple Watch to calculate her steps and lap-swimming strokes, Nylon said.

photos
Before and After: Celebs Who Have Admitted to Weight Loss Surgery

Sidibe was not treated like most female Oscar nominees after she became famous. In her memoir, she recalls overhearing a speakerphone conversation between director Lee Daniels and a "prominent fashion magazine editor," who told him say she was too overweight and dark to be on the outlet's cover, Nylon said.

"It really devastated me," she said. "I guess I thought that going from literally nothing to the lead in the movie would show people that I wouldn't be just fat anymore, or at least that's not the first thing people would think of me, that I'm not too fat or too black or ghetto or nappy—that wouldn't be part of my narrative anymore, but it was."

Daniels told Nylon he and the editor were both on the larger side themselves, saying, "To call somebody fat and black when we couldn't be bigger or blacker— I think that when you are that, and you are saying that, it's said with utter love. There was not hate, diss, or shade. He was talking about putting her on the cover, and it was a mission for him to do that."