Daisy May Cooper has revealed she feared her career would suffer after she lost 10 stone in weight, worrying that casting directors would no longer see her as the "funny big one."
The 40-year-old actress rose to fame alongside her brother Charlie in the BBC Three sitcom This Country. After the show ended in 2020, she went on to star in Am I Being Unreasonable and appeared on programmes including Never Mind the Buzzcocks, The Masked Singer and Last One Laughing.
Speaking about her weight loss, Cooper said: "That made me really panic actually. I thought, 'F**k. Is that going to affect me casting-wise?' Will I be scratched off people's lists when they go, 'She can't be the funny big one?'"
Shame over health journey
Cooper explained that during her health kick she felt "shame" from others for wanting to improve her lifestyle. She told The Independent: "There's also that thing where people are just shaming you for wanting to feel better and be healthy. When I was at my worst, I was a size 24."
She added: "When I was getting up the stairs, I was so out of breath and getting pains in my chest and left arm. I thought, 'This is it. I'm going to f***ing die before my kids go to secondary school if I carry on like this.'"
Her transformation took place between filming the first and second series of Am I Being Unreasonable? over three years from 2021 to 2024. She has previously said she was inspired to make a change after struggling with her well-being and feeling "unhappy" and "miserable".
Reaction to her new look
In an interview with The Sun TV Magazine, Cooper discussed seeing the contrast between her past and present self on screen. "It was a bit mad, as since we filmed the last series and this series, I've had my lips done and lost about ten stone, so in those flashbacks, we were just killing ourselves laughing as we don't even look like the same people. But it was fun."
She also recalled negative reactions when she first shared her new physique in 2019. "I've had some messages like, 'Well, now you've lost the weight, you're not funny anymore.' What the [explicit]? Why do women have to be [explicit] fat to be funny? That makes me so angry. I think everybody should be happy with their body," she told Grazia.
Cooper has been open about her struggles with body image, saying she fully supports body positivity but knew she needed to make a change for her health. "I'm so for body positivity, but when I was at my biggest, I was at my most miserable and I had a massive food addiction. I wasn't healthy. I couldn't breathe when I was walking up the stairs. I was so unhappy."
