Practical Fatgick | Behind the Scenes (Patreon)

Fat Zone Stars, Nicole Biggin and Sandra Fullock on transformation, tabloid invisibility, and why they are not shrinking themselves for anyone.

By Paul Raulo

There are transformations, and then there is what Nicole Biggin and Sandra Fullock did for Practical Fatgick.

In the film, a wickedly affectionate supernatural romance already being described as the season’s strangest crowd-pleaser, Biggin and Fullock play Vivian and Selene, a pair of witches whose attempt to amplify their powers backfires spectacularly. The spell works, technically, but their bodies, however, grow.

At first, the production planned to handle the physical transformation with prosthetics. Elaborate ones. Expensive ones. The kind that require silicone, and a small army of make-up artists. But after several test days involving eight-hour makeup sessions, the actresses made a fairly weighty decision that has stuck with them.

PR: When you first read the script for Practical Fatgick, what did you think the movie was?

NICOLE BIGGIN: I thought it was funny, odd, and kinda romantic. The pitch sounds outrageous: two witches cast a spell and get fat. But on the page, it was really about power. These women become bigger in every sense. Braver. Harder to ignore.

SANDRA FULLOCK: Yeah! The comedy was there, but the emotional spine was stronger than I expected. They are frightened at first, because their bodies are changing faster than they can understand. Then they realize the change is connected to their magic and their love for each other. That gave us something real to play.

PR: The original plan was prosthetics. What happened?

FULLOCK: Eight hours in makeup happened.

BIGGIN: Eight hours, every shooting day. Foam, silicone, glue, powder, cooling breaks, adjustment breaks. By the time we got to set, we were exhausted before acting.

FULLOCK: The suits were beautifully made, but they separated us from the characters. We could not move naturally. We could not sit naturally. Even touching each other became technical because we were calculating where the prosthetics began and ended.

PR: So the choice to gain weight came from frustration?

BIGGIN: At first., but we didn't just wander into a bakery and say “Screw the make-up! Let’s get fat!”. There were doctors, nutritionists, coaches, studio insurance people, and many conversations about what was possible.

FULLOCK: It was not easy. Nicole and I had different challenges. Mine was psychological. I had spent years in a business that treats every inch of a woman’s body like public property. Gaining weight on purpose meant giving up the illusion that I could control everyone’s opinion of me.

BIGGIN: Mine was physical at first. As we packed these layers on (grabs her gut with her fat fingers) I had to learn my body all over again. FULLOCK: Some of that was fun though, right? (giggles)

BIGGIN: Mind-blowing (taps her bulging tummy and attempts to re-cross her legs). Stairs became a challenge. The heat and the sweat from simple tasks. Costume sizes changed constantly. But once I stopped fighting that, I.. I mean, the character opened up. Vivian became grounded because I was grounded in her huge body.

PR: Did the crew know what to make of it?

BIGGIN: Nope!

FULLOCK: There were looks.

BIGGIN: Very weird looks. Kind looks, confused looks, frightened-producer looks.

FULLOCK: People tried not to stare, which somehow made it more obvious. You could see them doing the math every Monday morning. I helped them out. “Hey Freddy!” I’d shout, “268lbs and counting!”

PR: Was that uncomfortable?

FULLOCK: Sometimes. But the funny part was that outside the set, no one recognised us.

BIGGIN: Yeah! For months.

FULLOCK: We went to restaurants, shops, ordinary places. People looked at us, but not as “Nicole Biggin” and “Sandra Fullock.” They saw regular gals. 

BIGGIN: I don’t think you could call us ‘regular’ by then. 

FULLOCK: Maybe not. But there were those who would stare, some from disgust and some… who were clearly into women of our size and above. And those who completely ignored us. That was heaven! Do you know what it feels like to order a family sized bucket of fried chicken at 2 in the morning without judgement. Do you know what it’s like to become a regular at that restaurant? It’s real magic! 

BIGGIN: Then the trailer came out, and suddenly everyone realised we had been walking around in plain sight.

PR: There is already industry legend around the 500-pound party. Did this really happen?

BIGGIN: It absolutely happened.

FULLOCK: Against all good taste, yes.

BIGGIN: We had both reached 500 pounds within the same week, and wardrobe knew before anybody because they were rebuilding our costumes every ten minutes. Then one Friday, we walked onto set and there were purple balloons, a cake shaped like a crystal ball, and a banner that said, “The Real Magic Begins at 500.”

FULLOCK: Someone put a scale in the corner with a velvet rope around it, like a museum artifact.

BIGGIN: It sounds absurd, but it was touching. By then, the crew understood that the weight was not a gimmick to us. It was part of the work.

PR: How did the weight change the performances?

FULLOCK: It slowed us down in useful ways. Film acting can become very controlled and tidy. This was messier. Breathing, laughing, turning, dancing, getting out of a chair… oof! Everything had weight to it. That made the magic feel physical like us.

BIGGIN: There is a kitchen scene where Vivian and Selene dance after a spell misfires. In prosthetics, it played like a joke. After the real transformation, it became… well, thrilling. Two women finding the heavier side of life and discovering they like it.

PR: After filming, did you plan to lose the weight?

BIGGIN: At first, yes. That was the assumed ending.

FULLOCK: Everyone assumed there would be a “return to normal” phase. Press loves that story. The transformation, the discipline, the comeback body.

BIGGIN: But normal had changed.

FULLOCK: Exactly. We were happy. We liked how we looked. We liked how we felt in our homes, in our clothes, with each other, in our own skin. So we kept the weight on. We even grew a little bigger.

PR: That is not the usual Hollywood ending.

BIGGIN: Thank God.

FULLOCK: I never would have believed I could be this sexy and feel this beautiful. Hot. Sexy. Stunning. Fully fat, and fully myself.

BIGGIN: Same. I spent years thinking skinny was the rent you paid to be visible. Now I am bigger than I have ever been… bigger than nearly anyone I’ve ever seen, and I feel more present than I ever did.

PR: Would either of you go back?

FULLOCK: No.

BIGGIN: Not a chance.

PR: And now there are rumors about a plus-sized Charlie’s Angels reboot.

FULLOCK: Rumors are such hardworking little creatures.

BIGGIN: We have had conversations. That is all we are allowed to say.

FULLOCK: A glamorous, plus-sized action trio saving the world in couture and sensible structural engineering? I would watch that. I wonder who we could tempt to join our fat clan?

PR: Final question. What do you hope audiences take from Practical Fatgick?

FULLOCK: That transformation can be beautiful at any size.

BIGGIN: And that our asses look much better in widescreen. 

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