Countess Vaughn sat with Cherie Johnson of Family Matters and The Parkers to talk about her role as Kim Parker.
Vaughn talked of being regularly fat-shamed and having her figure compared to that of her white co-star, Jenna Von O, who played Stevie, in The Parkers.
She discussed how it had a detrimental impact on her perception of her body to the point where she decided to get silicone injections in her butt.
Johnson and Vaughn discussed O's moniker, "white chocolate," in order to highlight her attractive body type. Being continually compared to the white actress had an adverse effect on Vaughn's self-confidence.
“They used to clown me on the show. They’d be like, ‘you’re a Black girl, and Jenna von Oÿ’s butt is bigger than yours, and she’s a white girl,” she said to Johnson. “And that used to bother the heck out of me. That used to be a joke, all the time.”
Vaughn explained how castmates compared her body to Oÿ’s.
“Because I’m a Black girl, and I’m supposed to have a big butt,” she recalled. “You know, you fall into these stereotypes. You feel like, ‘I’m supposed to have this.’ And then you’d see all the attention she would get for having it. They would lose their minds. I’m like, ‘A** is everything.’”
Vaughn's identity as a young Black actor under the scrutiny of the trade's beauty standards was a topic they continued to debate.
She went on to discuss the numerous overweight remarks that were directed at her while she was performing in Moesha.
“And I get mad at myself because I was a lot smaller when I was on Moesha, and they made me the fat kid,” Vaughn said earnestly. “The jokes. Even the first episode… the line was, ‘oh, it’s baby fat,’ and whats-her-name goes, ‘no, it’s fat, baby.’”
There were a lot of fat jokes that have been brought up since Moesha was released on Netflix, many of which were explored in the July 29 interview.
0 Comments