One of my wokest takes is that Nikki Blonsky didnāt ā and doesnāt ā deserve all the hate that she gets and that Hollywood and Wendy Williams set her up to fail.
People mock her for being obsessed with a musical she was in almost two decades ago, but they forget that she was a plus-sized 17-year-old cast in a popular Broadway musical film adaptation opposite literal Zac Efron. She literally grew up in the Y2K skinny craze and was kissing the hottest guy on the market at the time while pretending to be John Travoltaās daughter.
Airport controversy aside ā in which the details are incredibly hazy and only her dad was charged ā the only irony at play is how comfortable people felt making fun of an insecure, naive teenager for daring to catch feelings. For her, it was probably a Cinderella moment and what she thought would be the beginning of her career and a real friendship with a super cute guy who had been really kind to her despite the seething hatred of anyone overweight at the time.
I mean - look at them.
When you take that all into account, suddenly Amanda Bynesās Twitter comment feels really cruel, especially when Nikki was just being nice and trying to network in an industry that never had her back. The fact is, they still donāt.
Similarly, Wendy Williams baited her in that viral interview. You can literally see the moment where Nikki tries to push back against the people in the audience laughing at her, as if she didnāt simply tell the truth without knowing that she was supposed to lie. Wendy had decades of experience and absolutely knew what she was doing. All she did was give Nikki the rope, and thatās really cruel and unfair to do to a girl who thought she had finally made her big break.
Furthermore, how else is she supposed to introduce herself? Hairspray was truly her only notable role, and no one knew who she was before she was cast. People still donāt.
The fact is, theyād have never felt as comfortable doing this to someone whose parents had connections, who fit the conventional beauty standards of the time, and who was thin. Yeah, the Cameos are funny sometimes, and sheās made a lot of mistakes, but she was also thrown to the wolves and made fun of for the crime of being inexperienced and ācringe.ā
It seems to me like a lot of people just want an excuse to bully the āfat girlā without the negative connotations. In my opinion, there are very few people who deserve the treatment she got.
