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Today's comment comes from Heather in response to Volcano theater critic Christian Carvajal's blog of the week, in which he delicately poses the indelicate question: Is it possible for an actor to be too fat or unattractive for a role?

Heather writes,

As with any physical feature that is outside of the "norm" of what you expect in a character, if the person is a good actor, facially, vocally, and physically, I personally don't think it matters. I think most of the time when a overweight person isn't convincing in a role that doesn't have dialogue pertaining to size that gets downright contradicted, it's because they are self-conscious and it shows. The only successful actor I know of that graduated from my college's theatre program is overweight, and while she does do mainly character parts, she's been cast in romantic leads with smaller partners quite a few times. And it's because she has a sexy voice and is confident as hell.