In her upcoming memoir, Christina Applegate describes how portraying Kelly Bundy on 'Married with Children' intensified her struggles with anorexia and body dysmorphia. The actress, who starred in all 11 seasons of the Fox sitcom, shares details of her restrictive eating and intense workouts to maintain a size 0 figure for the character's revealing outfits. Applegate reflects on the show's lewd elements without resentment toward its creators.
Christina Applegate's memoir 'You With the Sad Eyes', set for release on March 3, includes an excerpt published on Vulture detailing her experiences during the filming of 'Married with Children'. Applegate played Kelly Bundy, the Bundy family's promiscuous and rebellious teenage daughter, across all 11 seasons of the classic Fox sitcom.
Initially, Applegate declined the role, viewing the script as 'trash' and filled with 'poorly written potty humor', according to her account. She and her mother watched a VHS of the pilot reluctantly and found it unexpectedly funny, leading her to accept the part after another actress did not work out in the role.
Applegate had already been dealing with body dysmorphia and anorexia before joining the show, but the character's demands exacerbated these issues. Kelly Bundy embodied 'dumb blonde' tropes and required outfits that exposed her midriff, which Applegate envisioned as specific and form-fitting. 'I dug myself into a hole with that character, though, because I had to be skinny,' she writes. To fit into clothes that 'would show if you ate something as tiny as a single grape', she deepened her eating disorder.
Her daily intake was severely limited; for instance, if consuming a bagel, she would scoop it out and eat only a fraction, sometimes fasting entirely. At size 0, costume staff often had to take in her clothes, leaving her feeling 'bone, bone, bone'. Applegate maintained this through rigorous routines, including spin classes, trainer sessions, and two-and-a-half-hour dance classes, in pursuit of an unattainable perfection.
As the series progressed, the outfits grew tighter and skirts shorter. By season five, in episode 13 titled 'The Godfather', Applegate entered a scene in a leather fringed jacket over a short red shirt, prompting a five-second audience outburst of lusty cheers. Reflecting now, she cringes at the show's broad and lewd nature, noting it 'wouldn’t have a shot in hell of being made these days' and that this is 'a good thing' amid pressures on young women.
Despite the impact, Applegate harbors no resentment toward the cast or crew. 'Sure, it was always part of the show that I would be an object for men to leer at, but I wanted to wear those Kelly Bundy dresses,' she explains. As a young actress, she was innocent of her effect on audiences, attributing her food-related self-denial to trauma.
