Two weeks before the release of “Spy,” her latest comedy, Melissa McCarthy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
At the ceremony, she thanked her parents’ steadfast support for helping her get to where she is today. “Every time I said ‘I’m going to quit college and do stand-up,’ my mom and dad said, ‘Great, work really hard at it, you can probably do it,’” recalled McCarthy. “They continued to say that for the 20 years it took me to actually do it steadily,” she said, joking, “In a way you really give terrible advice.”
McCarthy has won an Emmy for her co-lead role on CBS’s “Mike and Molly” and earned an Oscar nomination for her supporting breakout role in “Bridesmaids.” She has also starred in “The Heat, “Tammy,” “Identity Thief,” and is currently working on “Michelle Darnell” and the female reboot of “Ghostbusters.” Her next film, “Spy,” opens June 5.
Despite her blockbuster success, the overt sexism that she has faced from the film and fashion and film worlds has taken their toll on the actress-writer.
“It’s an intense sickness,” she said last week in an interview of the misogyny she’s encountered in her professional life. “For someone who has two daughters, I’m wildly aware of how deep that rabbit hole goes. But I just don’t want to start listening to that stuff. I’m trying to take away the double standard of ‘You’re an unattractive bitch because your character was not skipping along in high heels.’”
