Melissa McCarthy Amazingly Shut Down a Sexist Critic

Melissa McCarthy is obviously beautiful, but her looks shouldn't matter. The actress is talented and hilarious in every role she's in, and yet all some people can talk to her about is her appearance. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Melissa spoke out against the "intense sickness" of sexism in the media and showed an awesome example of her taking action against it.


At last year's Toronto Film Festival, Melissa says a critic approached her who said he or she loved Melissa's most recent movie but who had torn her looks apart in a previous one. She doesn't mention who it is, but it might have been Red Reed, who called her a "hippo" when panning her movie Identity Theft and said she makes "no attempt to beautify herself onscreen" in a review of Tammy.

"Are you the one who wrote I was only a good actor when I looked more attractive and that my husband should never be allowed to direct me because he allowed me to look so homely?" she asked him. When he said yes, she went off. "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!'?"

"Watch what you say to [your daughter]," she told him. "Do you tell her she's only worthwhile or valid when she's pretty?"

Thankfully, the world has women like Melissa McCarthy who can straighten people out, one sexist at a time.