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“You think I carry it around for fun, Penny?”
Key Points
- Rosie O’Donnell says her A League of Their Own director Penny Marshall asked her to lose weight.
- “Penny Marshall didn’t help by saying, ‘Rosie, I want you to lose 20 pounds,’” O’Donnell told PEOPLE. “I’m like, ‘You think I carry it around for fun, Penny?’”
- O’Donnell starred in the all-female baseball league drama in 1992.
Rosie O’Donnell is doing what she does best: getting unfiltered about her storied life.
The actress, comedian, and former talk show host gave a career-spanning interview to PEOPLE on Tuesday, during which she spent a good deal of time reflecting on her recent health and wellness journey. O’Donnell has lost nearly 60 pounds with the help of Mounjaro, a GLP-1 diabetes medication that can spur weight loss. She also underwent a deep plane facelift, which has transformed her appearance.
In O’Donnell’s telling, the changes aren’t just skin deep, and they were a long time coming.
“It’s very strange to just buy a pair of jeans that fit. When I would do late-night, my biggest concern wasn’t my set — it was, did I look fat?” she told the outlet. “On League of Their Own, [director] Penny Marshall didn’t help by saying, ‘Rosie, I want you to lose 20 pounds.’ I’m like, ‘You think I carry it around for fun, Penny?’
“When I look back, I go, ‘God, I wish I could have enjoyed the size I was.’ I’m now at that same weight. But I feel much healthier, more powerful in my own physicality,’” she explained.
O’Donnell has been entirely enthusiastic about her health and wellness journey, and entirely transparent.
“I didn’t make it public until everyone started saying, ‘You look so much better. What are you doing?’ I didn’t want to be one of those people who says, ‘Oh, nothing,’” she continued. “So why do I look like this? $90,000. I was worried about the cost. I don’t like to waste money. I would never spend that on a car.”
As for Marshall, O’Donnell and the maverick American filmmaker worked on more than just the 1992 sports drama that chronicled the rise of an all-female baseball league. The pair costarred in a series of legendary ads for the big box store K-Mart in the 1990s, which saw them wandering around and gabbing about deals.
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O’Donnell starred as third base player Doris Murphy in A League of Their Own, opposite an all-star ensemble featuring Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, and Madonna.
Though O’Donnell poured her heart out in tribute to Marshall upon her death in 2018, specifically shouting out their beloved K-Mart commercials, she’s also dug up some other off-kilter pointers the director gave her on the A League of Their Own set.
“It’s funny, during League of Our Own, my character again, I think was gay. And when she had that speech — ‘I never really felt like a real girl. I always felt like a fake girl, not even a girl, but now there’s a lot of us and I feel like we’re all okay’ — I did that in the bus,” O’Donnell recalled in 2021. Marshall disagreed with O’Donnell’s insight into the character, asking her to shoot it again and cautioning, “‘It’s not a gay thing.’”
With her famous wit, O’Donnell simply replied, “‘Pen, did you read the words?’”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
