Gwyneth Paltrow’s 'Shallow Hal' Body Double Nearly 'Starved to Death' After the Film, Developed Eating Disorder

"It was like the worst parts about being fat were magnified," Ivy Snitzer said

The woman cast as Gwyneth Paltrow's body double in Shallow Hal says the experience resulted in her developing an eating disorder.

Ivy Snitzer was a 20-year-old aspiring actress when she landed the job in the 2001 movie. While Paltrow donned a bodysuit and prosthetics to portray lead character Rosemary — an overweight woman who captures the attentions of a man who's been hypnotized into seeing only a person's inner beauty — Snitzer, now 42, filmed full and close-up body shots in Paltrow's stead.

In a new interview with The Guardian, Snitzer said that she felt "really comfortable" shooting the film and was "treated like I mattered" by the cast and crew on set. However, she later struggled with severe body image issues. Two years after Shallow Hal debuted in theaters, she was "technically starving to death," she said.

Snitzer shared that she wasn't prepared for the exposure — and scrutiny — the movie brought her. "It didn't occur to me that the film would be seen by millions of people," she told the outlet. "It was like the worst parts about being fat were magnified."

Snitzer recalled having people approach her on the street, accusing her of promoting obesity for saying in a promotional interview for the movie, “It is not the worst thing in the world to be fat.” One person even cruelly sent her diet pills in the mail.

"I got really scared," she told The Guardian. "I was like, maybe I'm done with the concept of fame, maybe I don't want to be an actor. Maybe I'll do something else."

Related: Gwyneth Paltrow Calls Shallow Hal Her Least Favorite Film Role: 'Disaster'

The unwanted negative attention shifted Snitzer's perception of herself and led her to change her diet. "I hated my body the way I was supposed to," she said. "I ate a lot of salads. I had eating disorders that I was very proud of."

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In 2003, she underwent gastric band surgery, which shrunk the size of her stomach and reduced the amount of food she could eat. To speed up her weight loss, she also resorted to overexercising, purging and restricting her calorie intake. “It didn’t occur to me that I was supposed to be ashamed of those behaviors,” she said.

Her health worsened even more when she experienced a serious complication after the gastric band slipped. "I got a torsion — like dogs get and then die,” she explained.

She said she had a difficult time keeping food down and subsisted on sports drinks and watered-down nutritional shakes. “I was so thin you could see my teeth through my face and my skin was all gray,” she noted, adding that her mood also was impacted.

“I was just so bitchy all the time. I kind of alienated a lot of my friends. My mother was also dying; it was bleak. Humans shouldn’t have to experience how very bleak that particular time in my life was.”

She recalled being shocked to discover that, even in her malnourished state, people were suddenly kinder and more solicitous to her. "Everything was so different," she said, explaining that people smiled at her, moved out of her way and even paid for her coffee. “It was really nice to be treated well.”

Related: Aurora James Recalls Wanting to 'Disappear' amid Longtime Struggle with 'Destructive' Eating Disorders (Exclusive)

At the time of its release, Shallow Hal was widely criticized for its depiction of a plus-size woman. Sally E. Smith, editor of the now-defunct BBW Magazine, told Entertainment Weekly that the film reinforced "every stereotype about fat people."

"Plus-size women don't break chairs all the time, and we aren't compulsively eating. There are many reasons why people are larger than average, and food consumption isn't a major reason," Smith said in 2001.

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