‘It’s uncomfortable and it’s not depicted’: Rose Byrne on highlighting eating disorders in new show
“You’re nothing. You’re a ghost, a fat ghost,” says the critical inner voice of disillusioned housewife Sheila Rubin, who spends her days booking rooms in cheap motels to binge on fast food.
Beautiful, thin, privileged; on the outside, her life appears perfect. But inside, Sheila, played by Rose Byrne, is battling a complex eating disorder and plodding through a humdrum life in the shadow of her husband, a man who wants his wife to cook, clean, and have threesomes.
And then she discovers the shiny, spandex-wrapped world of aerobics. “Only you have the power to change you” becomes a new mantra.
Rory Scovel plays Danny Rubin, Sheila’s husband
Set against the backdrop of sun-soaked 1980s San Diego, Byrne’s new series Physical is a dark comedy about a woman’s rise from dutiful wife to lifestyle guru, all the time while fighting her inner demons; it explores the pressures on women – and the pressures women place on themselves – to look a certain way.
The actress, best known for her role as alpha bridesmaid Helen in Bridesmaids, says Sheila is “an extreme version of the duality” of many women.
“She obviously has a terrible illness, an addiction that she’s living with, and we meet her at a breaking point,” Byrne tells Sky News. “But there is that idea of appearance; on the outside, she looks perfect and she’s skinny and pretty and white and all these things but yet she’s completely self-destructive inside. She has all these privileges… but yet it doesn’t matter.
“I think that is uniquely female in a way, having that kind of inner-destruction. Often I see depictions of, you know, external, and this and that – drinking and that kind of destructive side of women. But I feel like it’s often an inside job that we do.”
Rose Byrne stars as Sheila Rubin in Physical. All photos: Apple TV+
Physical shows that anyone can suffer from issues with their body image, no matter what they look like.
Created by Annie Weisman, known for her work on shows including Desperate Housewives, the story of Sheila’s eating disorder is based on the writer’s own experiences when she was younger.
“It’s uncomfortable and it’s not depicted [very often on screen],” says Byrne. “I don’t know, why it is that? I mean, it’s a hard thing to write about and it’s a hard thing to show. I don’t think it’s particularly something people gravitate toward. This is sort of an opportunity to start a conversation about it.”
Byrne’s character appears perfect on the outside but is fighting inner demons
Sheila’s story shows the “seediness of the illness and that addictive quality that it has”, Byrne adds. “Like any addiction, you know, it’s always: ‘That was the last time. I just had to do it one more time, and then I’m good and I won’t do it again.’ And you just keep falling back into this very destructive pattern.”
At first, it’s the exercise part of the aerobics that Sheila craves, but real empowerment comes when she harnesses the burgeoning technology of videotape to revolutionise the industry. While on-screen workouts are everywhere now, whether it’s celebrity DVDs or Instagram lives with wellness gurus, it all stemmed from the trend that emerged in the 1980s.
“It was really hard,” Byrne tells Sky News, of channelling her inner Jane Fonda. “You know, I’m not co-ordinated, I’m not a dancer. I’m lazy, essentially. So I really was daunted by this task.”
Weisman says she wanted to use the typically female space of aerobics as a force for empowerment.
“Having struggled for decades with eating disorders and feeling really disconnected from my body, aerobics and exercise were a place where you could really embrace a kind of strength and power,” she tells Sky News. “And like so many things that are specifically female spaces, I think it gets easily dismissed.
“Whether or not women – or men – have that specific struggle with food, I think a lot of people relate to the idea of having a kind of shameful secret, an obsessive habit that allows them to contain some really difficult and unmanageable feelings.
“We’re not interested in exploitation or anything lurid, but really just emotional truth. So I don’t think you have to have had an eating disorder to relate. But, you know, eating disorders certainly are a persistent threat in in our culture today.”
Another issue the show explores is the power dynamics between men and women.
Sheila masks her problems and her desires and is seemingly a meek and mild wife, taking a backseat to her husband as he bids for state assembly – but while her character lives in the background (at first, at least), Byrne is very much the star of the show.
The issue of female-led films and TV series has been highlighted in recent years as diversity in front of and behind the camera slowly improves, but it seems there are lots of male stars who aren’t happy about playing second fiddle to a woman.
“Worth knowing that one of the big reasons so many female-centred projects weren’t being made for so long wasn’t because they weren’t being written and commissioned but because they couldn’t find a bankable male star who would agree to play second string,” Succession and I Hate Suzie writer Lucy Prebble tweeted earlier in June.
And in February, actress and director Olivia Wilde made headlines for praising her reported boyfriend Harry Styles for taking a supporting role in her female-led film, Don’t Worry Darling, saying that “the industry has raised [male actors] to believe it lessens their power (i.e financial value) to accept these roles, which is one of the reasons it’s so hard to get financing for movies focusing on female stories”.
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Comedian and actor Rory Scovel, who plays Sheila’s husband Danny Rubin, says he was more than happy to play a supporting role alongside Byrne.
“I like being employed, first and foremost,” he tells Sky News. “So I would do probably anything. I don’t relate to the sentiment of needing to be the lead or feel as though I won’t play a supporting character to a female lead. I do understand that that is something and I do understand that some people make their decisions and feel that way, but I truthfully just can’t relate to it.
“I don’t know that I’m so concerned where [a] character falls in the line-up or who the lead actually is. I think it’s just exciting to get to be a part of a show that is so well written, telling such an interesting story. It’s already fun that it’s set in the ’80s and we get to wear those clothes and have that look, but also, in quite the opposite sentiment, to get to follow someone like Rose and see her in action…
“I find it to be an education that I need as an artist. I would rather see someone like her showing me literally from the front row how she operates and what she brings to her roles so that I can, you know, hopefully try to educate myself in whatever that is, so that I can be better. So yeah, I feel quite the opposite. I feel very grateful that I got to be a part of the show.”
Apple Original series Physical, starring Rose Byrne, premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday 18 June
Entertainment
Dame Joanna Lumley warns of ‘crisis hidden in plain sight’ – with 1.5 million older people set to spend Christmas alone
Dame Joanna Lumley has warned of a “crisis hidden in plain sight”, with 1.5 million older people set to spend Christmas alone.
Age UK spoke to more than 2,600 people and found 11% will eat dinner alone on 25 December, while 5% will not see or speak to anyone the whole day.
Applied to the overall population, the findings suggest 1.5 million people will eat alone at Christmas, according to the charity.
Dame Joanna said the “silence can be deafening” for those left isolated and called it “a crisis hidden in plain sight”.
The actor and campaigner is now joining other luminaries including Dame Judi Dench, Brian Cox and Miriam Margolyes to back Age UK’s campaign against loneliness.
The charity says its volunteers made more than 70,000 minutes’ worth of calls to people during Christmas week last year and is urging people to donate.
‘A tragedy we don’t talk about enough’
Age UK said it also supports coffee mornings and festive lunches to give lonely people the chance to enjoy in-person interaction.
Dame Judi said: “For so many older people, Christmas can be a time of silence – days without conversation or company.”
Succession star Brian Cox called the issue “a tragedy we don’t talk about enough”.
He said: “Far too many older people are left spending the season in silence, when it should be a time of warmth, connection and joy.”
Brian Cox is another of the campaign’s high-profile backers. Pic: PA
Margolyes, of Harry Potter fame, added: “Growing older shouldn’t mean disappearing into the background, we need to be seen, heard and celebrated.
“That’s what Age UK is striving for – they’re changing how we perceive age.”
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The charity’s chief executive, Paul Farmer, said: “Your donation could bring comfort, friendship, and care to an older person facing loneliness this winter.
“From friendly, weekly calls to local lunch clubs, we’re here to make sure no one spends winter alone. But we can’t do it without you.”
Entertainment
Salman Rushdie on Charlie Kirk’s murder, surviving his own assassination attempt – and AI
Sir Salman Rushdie has told Sky News that Charlie Kirk’s murder was a “consequence of US gun culture”.
In an interview with Sky News lead presenter Wilfred Frost, Sir Salman said he thought the assassination of Mr Kirk, a conservative US activist, was an “appalling act of violence”.
“But it seems to me to be a characteristic or a consequence of America’s terrifying gun culture,” said the Booker-prize-winning author, who survived an attempt on his life at the Chautauqua Institution in New York in 2022.
“When you have a situation where there are more guns in private ownership than there are people in the country, I mean, guns are everywhere.
“When children are brought up being taught by their parents how to use guns, and guns are being left in the home in unlocked cabinets, it’s a country in which violent gun-related crime happens almost every day. And this is one of the most brutal examples of it.”
Sir Salman being interviewed by Sky News lead presenter Wilfred Frost
The Indian-British author also addressed the attempted assassination of US President Donald Trump, saying: “Well, I guess I’m happy that it failed. Beyond that, I don’t have a lot to say about it.”
Sir Salman was attacked by Hadi Matar, who stabbed him in the head, neck, torso and left hand, leaving him with damage to his liver and intestines as well as blind in one eye. Matar was jailed for 25 years in May.
He wrote about the attack and his recovery in his 2024 memoir Knife. His new book, Eleventh Hour, is a return to fiction.
Sir Salman Rushdie says Charlie Kirk’s assassination was a ‘consequence’ of US gun culture
Discussing the book and writing in general, he suggested that he doesn’t think AI would be able to capture emotion, humour and creativity like humans can.
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“The couple of little experiments that I’ve carried out with AI suggest to me that at least this far, it doesn’t have a sense of humour. And it’s not original,” he said.
“What it can do is to duplicate things that have been fed into it. But good art is original, and I don’t think that AI has an original bone in its body.”
Watch the full interview, including Sir Salman’s comments on book bans and freedom of speech in the US, during Mornings with Ridge and Frost on Sky News.
Biker romance Pillion has picked up the top prize at the British Independent Film Awards.
The film’s first-time feature writer and director Harry Lighton was also named best debut screenwriter at the ceremony, held at the Roundhouse in Camden, London, on Sunday evening.
Starring Harry Melling as sweet and timid Colin, and Alexander Skarsgard as rugged biker Ray, the film picked up four prizes in total – including craft wins for best costume design and make-up and hair.
Members of Kneecap holding director Rich Peppiatt. Pic: PA
Jessie Buckley and Olivia Colman. Pic: PA
Tom Basden and Tim Key took home the BIFA awards for best joint lead performance and best screenplay, for their debut feature The Ballad Of Wallis Island. Also starring Carey Mulligan, the film tells the story of a faded folk musician and his former partner who reluctantly reunite for an eccentric fan.
Elsewhere in the acting categories, Robert Aramayo was honoured with the best lead performance award for his portrayal of Tourette’s campaigner John Davison in I Swear, with the supporting performance award going to Jay Lycurgo for his role in pressure-cooker school drama Steve, also starring Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy.
Newcomer Posy Sterling’s portrayal of a mother fighting for custody of her children in Lollipop earned her the breakthrough performance award, while the best ensemble performance prize went to the cast of Warfare – including Will Poulter, Kit Connor, Joseph Quinn and Charles Melton.
Jack Lowden and Saoirse Ronan. Pic: PA
This year’s ceremony also celebrated cinema itself, with the inaugural cinema of the year award going to The Magic Lantern Cinema in the Welsh coastal town of Tywyn.
The BIFA for best international independent film was awarded to Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier’s intimate exploration of family, memories and the reconciliatory power of art.
Behind the camera, Akinola Davies Jr was named best director for his debut feature My Father’s Shadow, a story of two brothers who first come to understand their father at a pivotal moment in both his life and Nigerian history, while The Douglas Hickox Award for best debut director went to Cal McMau for prison drama Wasteman.
Robert Aramayo in I Swear. Pic: StudioCanal
And in the documentary categories, Myrid Carten’s exploration of mental health and addiction within her family, A Want In Her, picked up three BIFAs – best feature documentary, The Raindance Maverick Award, and best debut director for a feature documentary.
Elsewhere, Emily Watson, star of films including Gosford Park, Punch-Drunk Love and War Horse, and TV series including Chernobyl and Dune: Prophecy, was awarded the outstanding contribution to British film prize.
Tim Key (left) as Charles Heath and Tom Basden as Herb McGwyer in The Ballad Of Wallis Island. Pic: Focus Features, LLC/ Alistair Heap
Production company Warp Films – behind films such as Dead Man’s Shoes and This Is England, as well as the recent critically acclaimed series Adolescence – was honoured with the BIFA special jury prize for its “unflinching and uncompromising” commitment to telling “raw and relevant stories”.
Sophie Okonedo. Pic: PA
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Founded in 1998, the BIFAs aim to celebrate, promote and support talent and creativity in British independent film.
Previous winners of the best independent film award include Kneecap, the semi-autobiographical story of Irish-language rappers Kneecap, and Oscar winner The Favourite.
Jessie Buckley. Pic: PA
This year’s ceremony was hosted by comedians Lou Sanders and Harriet Kemsley, with Carey Mulligan, Stephen Merchant, Ruth Wilson, Billy Crudup and Celia Imrie among the star presenters.
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