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Maxine Peake has revealed that a teacher fat-shamed her while she was training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
The actor was told she would have to “lay off the chips” if she wanted to play Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Peake, 52, was speaking on the Sisters of Defiance podcast, which is hosted by radio presenter Anita Rani.
The BAFTA-nominated star says she had been rejected by 13 other institutions before RADA finally accepted her at the age of 21.
Her place at the prestigious drama school came through the Patricia Rothermere Scholarship. She studied there for three years and graduated in 1998.
Recalling the moment the teacher told her she would never play leading roles unless she lost weight, Maxine hit back with a quick-witted response.
She recalled: “I was told at RADA by a teacher, if I didn’t lay off the chips, I would never play Juliet. Those were her exact words.
“To which I went, I don’t want to play Juliet. She kills herself at 16 because of a boy.’
Peake weighed 15 stone when she got her big break in 1998 playing Twinkle in the acclaimed BBC sitcom Dinnerladies.
After the first series, the programme’s late writer and co-producer Victoria Wood advised her to lose weight to avoid being typecast. Peake recalled: “She said, ‘You’re big, you’re blonde and you’re northern, you’re going to be typecast.'”
Maxine, who was then 24, joined WeightWatchers following Wood’s comments and shed five stone in nine months. Despite the dramatic weight loss Peake still had to wear a fat suit in the second series.
Rani asked how she took Victoria’s advice, the Shameless alum added: “She wasn’t telling me something I didn’t already know. I think, actually, it was good that somebody – because she said that is what had happened to her. So she was talking from experience. So it was a really good piece of advice.”
Maxine previously admitted she thinks she felt “happier” as a “bigger girl”.
Speaking on the Her Spirit podcast, the Silk cast member explained: “I still have the mindset of being a big girl. Sometimes I think, ‘Was I happier when I was bigger?’ Because it’s a good protection – it’s a good armour.”I thought, ‘Men are not interested because I’m big.’ People say, ‘Oh, but you’ve got a lovely personality.'”
Peake concluded: |I lost weight and thought, ‘Have I even got an all right personality?'”
