Rosie O'Donnell has claimed that filmmaker Penny Marshall instructed her to "lose 20 pounds" while they were working on the 1992 movie A League of Their Own. O'Donnell, 64, reflected on her body image struggles as she gained prominence in show business.
"When I would do late-night, my biggest concern wasn’t my set - it was, did I look fat?" O'Donnell said in a recent interview. "On League of Their Own, Penny Marshall didn’t help by saying, 'Rosie, I want you to lose 20 lbs.' I’m like, 'You think I carry it around for fun, Penny?'"
The film, which starred O'Donnell alongside Tom Hanks, Madonna, Lori Petty, and Geena Davis, documented the creation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II. O'Donnell played Doris Murphy in the movie.
O'Donnell expressed regret over her past self-criticism regarding her body. "When I look back, I go, 'God, I wish I could have enjoyed the size I was,'" she stated.
O'Donnell, who began using Mounjaro three years ago for Type 2 diabetes, noted that she is now at the same weight she was in the early 1990s but feels "much healthier [and] more powerful in [her] own physicality."
She previously discussed her experiences with Marshall, who died in 2018, on the podcast We Can Do Hard Things. O'Donnell suggested that Marshall, who also directed films like Big and Awakenings, may have been a "closeted feminist." O'Donnell described Marshall as someone who "really supported women and women's sports and women athletes" to an unprecedented degree, leaving a "profound impact on women's sports in the history of the United States because of that movie."
In a 2021 appearance on the podcast Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino, O'Donnell recalled a specific scene in A League of Their Own where she interpreted her character's dialogue as indicative of being gay. Marshall reportedly asked O'Donnell to reshoot the take, stating the speech was "not a gay thing." O'Donnell recalled challenging this interpretation, saying, "Pen, did you read the words? The words are totally that she finally feels she fits in amongst this group of tomboys. There's this little bit of an undertone."