This question originally appeared on Quora.
Answer by Andy Pandini, actor:
Fat actor here.
Nearly every actor has a type that determines the roles he or she will get cast in. This is based on looks, age, body composition, hairstyle, and more.
I do comedy, mostly. That’s because I have a cherubic face. Even when I play bad guys, I play a comedy bad guy.
The thing is: Being fat is an advantage. It’s a clear type, and it opens the door to lots of roles. I tend to play what I like to call “slightly failed” people. Maybe it’s a cliché that fat people are underachievers, but, hey, we’re not making documentaries here.
The people I feel most sorry for are those in the 18-25 age range who are beautiful. They, of course, have their type, too, but there are about a million of them going up for each job. The benefit of being a morbidly obese type is that my competition is dying off on a daily basis.
So, I have an agent, and he gets me work, and he gets me work where the script calls for a fat, probably funny, person.
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