To Be Fat like Me

To Be Fat like Me
DVD cover
Genre	Drama
Written by	Michelle Lovretta
Directed by	Douglas Barr
Starring	Kaley Cuoco Melissa Halstrom Michael Phenicie Rachel Cairns Adrienne Carter Carlo Marks Brandon Olds Scott Little Caroline Rhea
Music by	Hal Beckett
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Mike Jacobs Jr. Michael Givens Allan Krasnick
Producers	Paul Rayman Michael Shepard
Cinematography	Peter Benison
Editor	Nicole Ratcliffe
Running time	98 minutes
Production company	Ardmore Productions
Original release
Network	Lifetime
Release	January 8, 2007 (2007-01-08)

To Be Fat like Me is a 2007 American drama television film directed by Douglas Barr and starring Kaley Cuoco. It premiered on Lifetime on January 8, 2007.

Plot

Beautiful, popular and athletic Aly has been banking on a softball scholarship as her ticket to college. She has an active life and never seems to sit still. Because her mother had weight issues and struggled with depression for most of her life, Aly has dedicated her life to staying healthy and in shape. When an opposing player unknowingly steps on her knee during a game, injuring it and thus ruining her chances of getting the scholarship, she realizes that she will have to fund her education in other ways.

It is revealed that as a consequence of binge eating, her mother got sick and had to use the money set aside in her daughter's college fund to pay for treatment, a decision for which Aly has always resented her. Aly also showers scorn on her family for their high-fat diet and lack of exercise, to the point of refusing to eat a cake that her mother purchased just for her.

To get the money, Aly decides to enter a documentary contest with a large cash prize. Convinced that her overweight younger brother and mother use their struggles with weight as an excuse for everything wrong in their lives, Aly decides to go undercover, using a fat suit and facial prosthetics to make herself obese and unattractive, while deploying a hidden camera to record herself at school to prove personality can outshine physical appearance.

Aly soon realizes how difficult the life can be for the overweight, as she is shunned and mistreated by other students, despite her resolve to be kind and maintain the same personality she always had. She meets Ramona, an overweight girl in the same class who shares aspects of her personal life with Aly but feels betrayed when she discovers Aly's real identity and that their conversations have been secretly recorded for the documentary. Aly titles her documentary Fat Like Me, a reference to John Howard Griffin's 1961 book Black Like Me, which recounts Griffin's experience living as an African-American in the segregated Southern United States for several weeks after receiving skin-darkening injections.

The film ends with Aly deciding to attend a house party while disguised, just to see how the same "friends" who loved her when she was attractive will still feel the same way now that she's fat. She is shocked to realize that, just as she expected, they now look down on her and talk behind her back just because of how she looks. Aly storms out, though not before unmasking herself in front of everyone so they know the truth. Aly reconciles with her mother and tells Ramona she intends to drop out of the contest. However, Ramona talks her out of it, saying that if she truly wants to make up for her deception, she will win. She also tells Aly that one day, they might actually get a chance to be real friends.

Cast

• Kaley Cuoco as Alyson
• Caroline Rhea as Madelyn
• Ben Cotton as Warren
• David Lewis as Mr. Johnson
• Rachel Cairns as Jamie
• Michael Phenicie as Jim
• Brandon Olds as Adam
• Timothy Paul Perez as Coach Martin
• Carlo Marks as Michael
• Melissa Halstrom as Ramona
• Scott Little as George
• Matt Bellefleur as Eddie
• Richard Harmon as Kyle
• Adrienne Carter as Kendall

External links

• To Be Fat like Me at IMDb