Rafe Spall: I was told I was too fat for big TV role

The actor Rafe Spall has spoken out about how the pressure to lose weight for a role broke his heart when it came as he was at his fittest.

The 38-year-old stage and screen star said he was sick of demands in the entertainment industry for both men and women to achieve unrealistic body shapes.

In 2012 he was told he needed to lose weight for his first lead role in the romantic comedy I Give It A Year, which also starred Rose Byrne.

Spall, who had first dieted at 21 after being overweight as a child, said: “It was made clear to me that I needed to lose weight in order to do the film.

“And, so, a trainer was laid on. I trained twice a day for 13 weeks to look like a ‘normal guy’.”

More recently, Spall’s agent called him before he took on a big TV role to say production staff were concerned he was carrying too much weight.

“It broke my heart,” said the star of Jurassic World, The BFG and Life Of Pi.

“There is much in the public discourse about the terrible pressure that women are put under in the entertainment industry to live up to as unrealistic body shape.

“The same is for me. It isn’t just me, it’s all men.And I don’t know who it’s for, on both sides, and I’m sick of it.”