Gargo 'overweight' when she first came to Hollywood?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Greta Garbo
Bunnymonsterz — 13 years ago(August 05, 2012 04:30 PM)
When Garbo first came to Hollywood, Louis B. Mayer said that she was too heavy and that "Americans don't like fat actresses." I've seen pictures of her in "Gosta Berling's Saga," the film that caught Mayer's attention, and she looks about 30 pounds heavier than she did in her first American pictures, where she was the very slim Garbo we're used to seeing. Mauritz Stiller, Gosta's director, (who only came to Hollywood on the condition that his protege actress Garbo come with him), had also told Garbo she would have to lose weight for her role in THAT movie.
This is a picture of Garbo in 1920, when she was 14:
http://www.garboforever.com/Bilder/Childhood/Childhood-12.jpg
Here she is in Gosta Berling's Saga, 1924:
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/22300000/G-STA-BERLINGS-SAGA-gr eta-garbo-22313081-640-480.jpg
and
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3206/2921477954_16656d7747.jpg
Does anyone know how she lost so much weight? I know she was fan of taking very long walks and that she would frequently go hiking in the Angeles National Forest. In the 1930's she was linked to the famoust nutritionist Gayelord Hauser.
I'm just curious how she went from "pudgy" (not my word, but one frequently used to describe pre-Hollywood Garbo, I've discovered) to incredibly slender, and how she kept in such amazing shape throughout her lifetime. I wonder if she had to alter her whole lifestyle for Hollywood, or if it was just a "baby fat" phase she grew out of.
rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell -
Bunnymonsterz — 13 years ago(August 07, 2012 10:31 AM)
Even at the height of her beauty (in Flesh and the Devil, for example), you think she'd be considered too heavy today's standards? That's an incredibly depressing thought but you're probably right.
rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell -
Bunnymonsterz — 13 years ago(September 01, 2012 04:55 PM)
I just read a Garbo biography, "A Life Apart" by Karen Swenson, and got my question answered.
She gained a significant amount of weight as a teenager in the year following her father's untimely death, probably as an emotional reaction to her loss. She slimmed down for Hollywood the old fashioned way - diet an exercise.
By the time she was established in Hollywood, she kept the weight off by eating only spinach and a lemon slice for dinner (at least at one point), and then she basically became a vegetarian. She was also a big fan of swimming and of course, long walks.
During the filming of "Ninotchka" she was so thin and sickly (because of an extreme vegetarian diet) that Ernst Lubitsch told her to gain weight and "put some color in her cheeks."
rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell -
Mrs_Mills — 12 years ago(October 04, 2013 04:21 AM)
They say the camera adds 30lbs and that's why a lot of actresses had to slim down for Hollywood.
Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford - to name a few, were all a lot heavier at the start of their careers.
Nicole Kidman is heavier on eyeshadow than emotion - The Paperboy Review, Variety -
filterfan86-1 — 11 years ago(August 02, 2014 11:06 PM)
She was not overweight.THat jerk Louis Mayer said i"n America, men don't like fat women," to her and she took that to heart.Greta Garbo was obsessed with fad diets from that point.She followed Gayelord Hauser(who Simon Doonan said she bearded for) a quack doctor and author of "Diet dos" that had really strange food combinations.She ate a celery loaf and yeast to lose weight.The men of MGM were just ruthless sexist jerks who stomped on these early Hollywood actresses self-esteem.Saying she was "pudgy" is terrible and conforming to those three jerks ridiculous standards.They called Judy Garland ugly or their "little hunchback".I believe that is the reason Garland had so many problems later on in life.Garbo was not overweight just a product of the evils of Hollywood pushing some type of standard that has effected generations of other Hollywood actresses to embark on strange diets and to look rail thin.
