One of Gwyneth Paltrow’s best movies was Shallow Hal where she wore a fat suit to play plus-sized Rosemary. For close-ups of Rosemary’s arms, torso, and thighs, then-20-year-old Ivy Snitzer played Paltrow’s body double. Sadly, Snitzer developed an eating disorder after Shallow Hal’s success.
Before Shallow Hal, Snitzer was a Los Angeles acting student with aspirations to make people laugh. According to an interview with The Guardian, a friend in her class told her about “this thing” to audition for. The casting directors of Shallow Hal took a bunch of photos of those who attended. A day later, Snitzer got a callback, spoke to the Farrelly Brothers, and was told an hour later the job was hers. She was Gwyneth Paltrow’s body double for the body close-up shots.
Snitzer said she had a fun filming experience and worked well with stars Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow. Sadly after the film’s release, Snitzer didn’t get the positive feedback she was expecting. While promoting the movie, Snitzer said, “It’s not the worst thing in the world to be fat.” This led to angry people approaching her on the street accusing her of promoting obesity. Others sent love notes to her address and another mailed her diet pills.
Less than two years after Shallow Hal, Snitzer was “technically starving to death.” She got gastric band surgery to shrink the size of her stomach and limit her food. After the surgery, the body double suffered a twisted stomach after the band slipped, making it hard for her to keep food down. While waiting for her health insurance to come through, Snitzer spent three months living off of sports drinks and watered-down nutritional shakes.
“I was so thin you could see my teeth through my face and my skin was all grey,” said Snitzer.
How did the Shallow Hal Body Double Eventually Get Better?
After her first surgery, Ivy Snitzer exercised excessively, purged, and restricted her calories. Doctors weren’t able to do a second surgery on Snitzer because of how malnourished she was. They first gave her a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line to provide her with liquid nutrition. For four months, she hooked herself up to an IV fluid bag every night after work. Because of further complications, Snitzer had to undergo a gastric bypass operation to remove part of her stomach. Today, she still has to eat tiny portions and can’t eat and drink simultaneously.
When The Guardian asked Snitzer why she got the gastric band surgery, she responded. “I don’t know. Because I was supposed to! If you’re fat, you’re supposed to try to not be.”
The former body double also mentioned that it was a coincidence she got surgery 15 months after Shallow Hal. Her true reasoning was that a doctor told her she wouldn’t make it to the age of 40 without surgery. Now at the age of 42, Ivy Snitzer is a health insurance agency owner in Philadelphia with a husband and a 13-year-old daughter.
Snitzer still finds it “cool” being part of Shallow Hal as she says it’s a fun story for her to tell over drinks. She also says she gets compliments from people on Instagram from women telling her she was the first plus-sized representation they ever saw on screen.