People Magazine has a video interview with Chrissy Metz to promote her new memoir, This is Me, which came out earlier this week. As we saw, Chrissy covered last week’s People Magazine. Advance details of her book reveal that her stepfather beat her when she was young and forced her to do weigh-ins. I know there’s not a lot of interest in Chrissy for some reason, probably because she’s just a good person who isn’t controversial. I always come away from her interviews with some wisdom and frankly inspiration. She came from extreme poverty and hardship and was totally broke and living with friends when she landed the role on This is Us. Here are some quotes from her People interview, which you can watch at the source.
On being raised by a single struggling mom
I appreciate my mom on so many levels for her sacrifices. It taught me so much humility and I’m really grateful for that. A juice box, a pair of shoes, a car, a purse doesn’t make you who you are. Those things you can’t take to wherever we go after we leave this plane of existences. That was, in a very difficult and roundabout way taught to me through some hardships.
On telling personal stories that paint her family in a bad light
I’m concerned because I never want anybody to think I spoke ill of them for any particular reason other than to show this evolution of the friendship or how this lesson changed me. My intentions are good and I would never throw anyone under the bus because that’s not who I am.
Chrissy didn’t see her biological father from the ages of 8 to 21
My father didn’t want to have a relationship with me. It’s heartbreaking, but ok. I think that every relationship has the potential to be mended. I think it’s important to at least try. Whether he’s ready or not I don’t know. He could see this interview and say ‘oh I never saw her perspective.’ He’s still a human being. I have respect for him in that regard. I don’t think we have to beg someone to be in our lives.
Notice that she prefaced all those expensive things, a car, a purse, with a juicebox! Her family was so poor she couldn’t bring a juicebox to school like the other kids. Also she doesn’t have a relationship with her biological father, who remarried the day his divorce with her mom was final, but she’s holding out hope that he’ll see her point of view. After that she talked about her stepdad and said that she was sure that raising three kids who weren’t his own must have been “challenging” and that “he had some stuff that he never worked out.” She’s trying to understand and relate to a man who was abusive to her. (Chrissy’s stepfather actually denied being abusive, for what it’s worth.) Victims do this, I’ve done this, and it’s heartbreaking.
As for her weight, Chrissy says that she eats her feelings and stuffs them down. There’s more in there about her, including her thoughts on relationships. She was actually married to a British screenwriter for a few years. She said “I don’t have to beg somebody to like me, love me, to call me to, to text me. I don’t have to be with someone. Nobody else is going to make me happy if I don’t make myself happy.” Chrissy impresses me so much. It’s not about her size or being “confident,” which the People contributors mention a few times, it’s her perspective.
photos credit: WENN and Backgrid
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