‘Hairspray Live!’ star Maddie Baillio sheds 150 pounds

CNN
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Maddie Baillio is feeling really good these days.

The actress who starred as Tracy Turnblad in 2016’s “Hairspray Live!” has revealed her 150 pound weight loss.

“I’m in a lovely, healthy relationship with myself and my body and my family and my partner, [boyfriend Solomon Reynolds],” Baillio recently told People. “I’m in a much more centered, grounded place.”

The former plus-sized star told the publication that while she had always felt comfortable in her body, it was while filming the “Cinderella” remake starring Camila Cabello that she struggled to keep up with her more fit costars.

“There was a scene that didn’t make it in the movie, where me and the other stepsister [Charlotte Spencer] led a group of like 300 girls — fantastic dancers, slender, they had it going on — down this 50-yard pathway to the castle singing ‘Single Ladies’ and dancing,” she said. “I couldn’t keep up with the choreography. I kept losing my breath. We’d have to start reshooting the scene over and over for me.”

Then Covid-19 hit, she said, and she began walking during her free time and changing her diet, eventually becoming vegan.

Now Baillio is more than half the size she used to be, has more energy and is excited for her future, she said.

“I’m inspired by the changing mentality,” she said. “I wanna play my dream roles on Broadway that have nothing to do with my weight. And I definitely see it going that direction.”