MovieChat Forums > Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Discussion > Why was Olive in a fat suit?

Why was Olive in a fat suit?

posted 12 years ago by UltimaGabe
18 replies | jump to latest

I understand that there was the little bit involving the ice cream and it making you fat or whatever, but why did they have the actress playing Olive wearing a fat suit? I feel like it added nothing to the plot and just made her look unnatural. (It's very rare for someone's stomach to be the only part of their body to gain weight- and to me, it just made her look pregnant, which was especially weird.) If the issue of her having gained weight was brought up more than once (or twice, if you include the frozen yogurt bit at the end) then it might have fit a bit more, but I just felt it was completely unnecessary.

[–] deem714 12 years ago

This is a story of just being yourself. LIttle Olive was very determined to be in little girl beauty pageants yet, not only was she chubby, she was also a little homely looking. Limp hair thick old fashioned glasses.

The entire scene with the ala modey breakfast was to show dad's side... how do the contestents look? Do they look fat?,... And everyone else's side... Do what you want. If you want to be skinny that's fine, if not, that's also fine...

The father's job was this self made guru of these 9 steps of achieving success. He said that Dwayne was using like 7 of those to achieve his goal of pilot for the AirForce by not speaking. It's funny that he is all for Dwayne and his gel pen brigade but he is anti Olive

You have to include the chocolate cherry garcia bit at the end because she asked the miss California if she eats ice cream. She loves CCG but she thinks it's a frozen yogurt. The point... If Miss California was soooo concerned about weight, she would know definitely what her favorite icy treat was made of.

"Oh Thank you God! Thank you so BLOODY much!" Basil Fawlty

[–] UltimaGabe 12 years ago

I get that, but if her weight was supposed to be one of the core issues of the movie, why was it only mentioned twice? The fact that they cast a girl that was not fat, put her in a fat suit (which, in my opinion, made her look pregnant, which was disturbing- when people gain weight, it fills out far more than their midsection) and then only allude to it once halfway through, and once near the end. (They never even say that she's overweight, there's just an single-scene conversation about eating ice cream and then two lines at the end of the movie referring to that scene.) If it was a big enough deal to put her in a fat suit for the whole movie, why wouldn't they ever specifically mention it or even just hint at it more than twice? I think the "homely" aspect of the movie was definitely there, and I completely understood that, but, like I said, nobody in the movie ever directly addresses her weight- they just address ONE thing that she was about to eat.

It just felt like it was tacked-on to me, and unnecessary. I think the fat suit could have been left out and the movie would have had the exact same message and nothing else would have been affected.

[–] deem714 12 years ago

Ultima...think of it from a realistic point of view.

a: This movie took 5 years to make, due to it being an independent film. I'm speculating now... but Abigail Breslin might have been a little on the chubby side on the beginning of filming, and "Grew into" her looks/"baby weight" during the course of the 5 years. In order for people to not notice the 5 year change in a 1 hr 40 minute movie spanning over a long weekend, they had to keep things "status quo" for little Olive.

b: I googled "chubby child actresses" and came up with bupkis. Plenty of chubby childhood actors but not actresses. Ergo, there are no child actresses who are on the chubby side. I somehow think that the agents who handle child actresses prefertheir clients to be svelte.

"Oh Thank you God! Thank you so BLOODY much!" Basil Fawlty

[–] bjorneboe 12 years ago

Deem, what are you talking about? The film took 5 years to make, but the shooting was done during one summer (the summer of '05). If the filming had taken 5 years, that would mean Ms. Breslin would have grown from age 4 to 9 during filming... Which obviously isn't the case.

Bjørneboe

[–] artistathome 10 years ago

Yes, the movie itself didn't take 5 years. I took 5 years to get and secure financing. good grief.

In 5 years, Olive would have been a 12 year old!!

[–] TeaBunny 12 years ago

Sometimes little girls do have tummies like that, and they wanted to show Olive was not a beauty queen type.

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"Love means never having to say you're ugly." - the Abominable Dr. Phibes

[–] blahblahblah12345 12 years ago

I actually barely noticed the fat suit... I think a lot of people have that type of body though, it's just never as obvious. I was kind of like that when I was a kid up until my late teens. For the most part I was pretty skinny but my stomach just popped out a bit. My entire family's like that actually so I think it's genetic.

That fat suit probably wasn't a necessity, but I think it did add to the illusion that Violet didn't look like the other girls (because when you're that young you probably still do have some baby fat, the fat suit was just to suggest that Violet maybe had a little bit more) which makes the character more sympathetic and someone you want to root for and see succeed.

[–] el-passo 11 years ago

It wasn't a fat suit, loads of kids of that age have those "fat" stomachs

[–] Funky12345 10 years ago

They made her stomach like that because they're presenting a social message to the viewers you nitwit. Duh. It had nothing to do with the ice cream .

DAMM: Drunks Against Mad Mothers

[–] lukn4frnz 10 years ago

I also was frequently distracted by how her stomach protruded oddly.

Hadn't considered it was a 'fat suit'

[–] mariposa-9 10 years ago

If it was a fat suit I didn't know it. I thought she was just chubby.