Wednesday’s episode of Empire marked a controversial event for actress Gabourey Sidibe. In case you missed, viewers saw her character Becky, having sex with her boyfriend MC J Poppa on the Nov. 4th installment. Unfortunately, the host of reactions that plagued social media weren’t so kind for the 32-year old, award-winning actress. Sidibe, on the other hand, considered the sequence a proud moment for herself.
In a report from Wetpaint, a slew of comments about Becky’s steamy scene on the most recent outing of "Empire" have been negative, specifically targeting the actress’ plus-size figure.
One viewer even compared Sidibe to a “seal washed up on shore”, giving reference to her award-winning role, Precious.
Though this may be the case, Becky’s portrayer remained true to herself following the airing of the episode. In a bog post she wrote for Entertainment Weekly, she addressed the sexy scene that unfolded between her co-star, Mo McRae – admitting that she felt sexy and beautiful, while also doing a good job.
“I, a plus sized, dark-skinned woman, had a love scene on primetime television. I had the most fun ever filming that scene even though I was nervous,” she shared.
She also echoed her thoughts about the fat-shamers who thought poorly about the opening scene. But despite of this, the actress shared how very proud she is of her Empire team who made the scene successful.
“I keep hearing that people are “hating” on it. I’m not sure how anyone could hate on love but that’s okay. You may have your memes,” she added.
Co-star Jussie Smollett also felt proud of Sidibe’s bold scene on "Empire".
"It was hot. She's fearless. She owns herself and she's sexy and she's fearless. It was dope. I thought it was beautiful to see her on screen in that way," Smollett said in a report from E! Online.
As for the haters, here’s what the actor has to say:
"They should close their eyes and shut of their TVs then. I wanted to see it and millions of other people wanted to see it.”
FOX’s Empire wrote a sexy scene for Gabourey Sidibe’s character on its most recent episode. However, the actress received a string of fat shaming remarks from viewers through social media. Sidibe addressed this matter in a blog post she wrote following the episode airing.
Empire airs every Wednesday at 9PM on FOX.
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