While she’s best known for her role on Gilmore Girls , it was Bridesmaids that truly made Melissa McCarthy a star — one that is worth over $70 million (!!).
She’s humble, hilarious, and defies “standard” body norms in Hollywood. Basically, she is a force to be reckoned with, in every sense of the word.
RELATED STORIES
Here are 10+ things fans didn’t know about the star.
Just because she makes us hold our stomachs due to laughing cramps, that doesn’t mean that we know all about this great actress!
So let’s get into these really fun facts about this comedic actress!
It will only make you love her more!
Melissa McCarthy is one of the most popular actresses in Hollywood, especially in the comedy genre!
She lights up our screens with her bright eyes, hilarious lines, and adorable smile.
Off-screen she is just as amusing, and fans love to watch her work.
1. She grew up on a farm:
She grew up in Plainfield, Illinois. It was there that her love of acting first began.
“I’d perform for my poor mother in our laundry room. I’d make up songs that were never-ending,” she told People .
2. She and Jenny McCarthy are cousins:
The same last name isn’t a coincidence. They are actually related! Jenny even once slammed a film critic who attacked Melissa’s weight.
She said that “he can go to hell.” Family first!
3. She met her husband, Ben Falcone, through comedy:
Of course .
This was back in 1996 when her love for comedy led Melissa to move to L.A. and join the comedy troupe the Groundlings.
They ended up marrying in 2005.
4. She was once told by a manager that she’d never work in Hollywood if she didn’t lose weight:
“It really hurt my feelings,” she recalled to People .
“I understand that the odds are not as high as if I was skinny, but I still have talent. I thought, ‘I’ll show you!’”
Thank goodness she did!
5. She’s a fashion designer:
She accomplished this despite dropping out of the Fashion Institute of Technology to pursue stand-up.
Her fashion line, Seven7, was created out of her frustration to find clothes that both fit and looked stylish.
You can find her line in department stores and on the Home Shopping Network.
She’s even instilling her entrepreneurial skills into her two daughters, Vivian and Georgette.
“My oldest daughter wants to start selling [slime]. I was like, ‘Great. Start a business,’” she told Glamour .
6. Her husband has been in most of her movies:
Basically, wherever Melissa goes, he goes!
He directed Tammy and The Boss , and you’ll see him make appearances in Gilmore Girls , Spy , Bridesmaids (as her love interest), Identity Thief , and The Heat .
7. She went through a punk phase in high school:
“I was super preppy, and then by the end I had blue-black hair that I would shave in patches,” she once told Anderson Cooper.
Keep in mind that she went to a Catholic school.
“I would wear turtlenecks for pants. It kind of made them harem pants: I would put my legs through the sleeves, and I would put safety pins and let it hang.”
She continued:
“And then I would fashion it into a waistband.” She added, “My mom loved it and so did the nuns.”
8. She once had a dream about Mark Wahlberg wearing nothing but an apron:
She noted on Instagram that there was no sexual tension.
He simply lived in her house with her husband and kids. Mark even made her dream come true on The Ellen Show !
9. She loves her “flaws”:
She is not a size zero and she is damn proud of that, she told People .
“[I love] all of it: my flaws, my shortcomings, my body parts that you’re like, ‘Well, couldn’t that be better?’”
“I think, especially after having kids, I go, ‘Well, the alternative is pretty bad. I’ll take me as I am.’”
She continued on with her self-love:
“I know I am not the ‘norm.’ It never occurs to me in terms of being a role model, though, because I don’t know any perfect women. If I, off the top of my head, name 20 of the most amazing women in my life, it’s all shapes, sizes, ages, colors, jobs.”
10. She was hesitant to do the show *Mike & Molly*:
That’s because the show revolves around a couple who met at Overeaters Anonymous.
“I’d never done anything that touches on weight. I just don’t find it funny,” she told People .
“But there is a sweetness between these characters. Weight wasn’t the topic of the show. It was a slice of the pie.”
11. She has gone through some crazy diets:
Before Melissa found a place of grace with her body, she tried every diet you could think of.
At one point, she signed up for a doctor-supervised all-liquid diet of 500 calories a day.
While it worked (she lost 70 pounds in four months in 2003), she said that she’d never do it again.
“I felt starved and crazy half the time,” she told People .
The weight ended up creeping up once again when she was pregnant with her daughter, Vivian.
12. She always dreamed of being on *SNL*:
This makes sense since comedy is her jam.
Her dream came true eventually, as she’s most-known for portraying President Donald Trump’s former press secretary, Sean Spicer. Needless to say, it’s nothing short of iconic.
13. She almost didn’t get the part of Sookie on *Gilmore Girls*:
It was actually Alex Borstein who was set to play the quirky chef, but she couldn’t commit to the role because of her contract with MadTV .
You will, however, see her in a few episodes.
14. She had $5 in her bank account when she landed the role on *Gilmore Girls*:
While she’s one of the highest-paid actresses today, that wasn’t always the case .
“I remember when you could still get a $5 bill out of an ATM and I couldn’t get it because [my balance] was under $5,” she told Glamour .
Thankfully, things have changed *a lot* since then.
As of 2020, she is estimated to be worth $70 million!!
She is a rags to riches success story if there ever was one. We are so glad she believed in herself!
15. The fame has not gone to her head.
Costars have revealed that McCarthy is really as nice as she seems and is very down to earth.
Considering how fast fame can change people, this is really good to hear. She definitely seems like the kind of person that I’d like to have dinner with.
16. She is happy she gets to play women that people might consider crazy:
She knows that Hollywood, unfortunately, tends to portray women in one light and one light only: the kind woman who plays by the rules.
But she prefers when her women go nuts and break the rules.
17. According to *EW*, McCarthy once confronted a movie critic at TIFF.
After reading that the critic was not a fan of her physical appearance (and even put some of the blame on her husband), McCarthy confronted him by saying:
“Do you tell your daughter she’s only worthwhile when she’s pretty?”
18. According to *EW*, she started being even MORE aware of the sexism in Hollywood because of her daughters:
“It’s an intense sickness,” she said about the industry. “For someone who has two daughters, I’m wildly aware of how deep that rabbit hole goes.
“But I just don’t want to start listening to that stuff,” she continued.
“I’m trying to take away the double standard of ‘You’re an unattractive [expletive] because your character was not skipping along in high heels.'”
19. She was very aware of the hate *Ghostbusters* was getting:
A lot of old fans were upset it was being “ruined” by using four women at the center of the movie.
In true Melissa McCarthy fashion, she not only didn’t care, but said she really hoped they found a friend to brighten up their hateful lives.
Do you know any more fun facts about the hilarious Melissa McCarthy?
Or were you quite surprised by all the facts in the article?
Either way, let us know down below in the comments section! We would love to hear from you!
