Gemma Collins has spoken out about how a celebrity agent told her she had the charisma to make it on TV- but needed to lose two stone first.
In Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, which will air on ITV on Thursday, the TOWIE star, 40, discussed how at the age of 18 she tried to break into the showbiz industry.
Gemma said the agent ‘can eat her words’ as she talked about her rise to fame after Piers unearthed a clip of Gemma as a teenager on an ITV programme called Snobs.
Harsh: Gemma Collins has spoken out about how a celebrity agent told her she had the charisma to make it on TV, but needed to lose two stone first
As Piers brought up the footage from the 2000 series, which was about people who think they are a difference class, Gemma asked: ‘How did you get the footage? Throughout my whole career, I’ve always been worried about that first programme.’
The host, 55, said: ‘You went to a TV agent to see if they would take you on. Do you remember what they said to you?’
When Gemma replied ‘no’, Piers told her: ‘She said that you “had the charisma but you were too fat to be on TV” and suggested you lose two stone.’
Career: In Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, which will air on ITV on Thursday, the TOWIE star, 40, discussed how at the age of 18 she tried to break into the showbiz industry
Throwback: Gemma said the agent ‘can eat her words’ as she talked about her rise to fame after Piers unearthed a clip of Gemma as a teenager on an ITV programme called Snobs
First TV appearance: As Piers brought up the footage from the 2000 series, which was about people who think they are a difference class, Gemma asked: ‘How did you get the footage?’
Cruel: Piers told Gemma her agent said you “had the charisma but you were too fat to be on TV” and suggested you lose two stone’
Gemma said ‘charming’ but defiantly told Piers: ‘Look where I am now honey? Yeah, well she can eat her words now.
‘But I never gave up and I think people admire that about me. Yeah, I have not been blessed with, you know, a Victoria’s Secret’s body but it’s my body and I love it. I am what I am.’
Speaking about the show, Gemma said: ‘How the producers put it to me was, “Look we’re gonna need you for seven weeks. Basically, at the end of seven weeks we’ll give it a review.”
‘So I thought, “right I’ve got seven weeks to make sure that I never, ever turn backwards” and at the end of the show that was it, signed, sealed and delivered.
The GC: Gemma said ‘charming’ but defiantly told Piers: ‘Look where I am now honey? Yeah, well she can eat her words now’
Piers told Gemma about how her first TV appearance gained her around 3,000 new Twitter followers, but also question the reality star about the abuse she also received for starring on the show.
‘It was hard; I’m not gonna lie, it was hard,’ she said. ‘There were times when fans would get online and say we hate you. I think one said, “get in your car and go and have a car crash. I wish you was dead.”
‘You have to get a very thick skin and I think that’s where the GC was created as well.
Tough cookie: ‘You have to get a very thick skin and I think that’s where the GC was created as well,’ Gemma said
‘There is no way, if you didn’t have a thick skin—and you will know this [Piers], that you will survive in this industry. It’s not for everyone I’ve been able to cope with it but there’s a lot of people I know that haven’t and it can ruin your life.’
Gemma eventually got her big break when she appeared on the 2011 series of TOWIE.
At the time she was a car dealer but quickly found that her theatrical presence on the show made way for a number of dramatic storylines.
Thanks to her fame on the reality TV show, Gemma has made millions thanks to a successful business selling plus size clothing as well as appearances on Big Brother and I’m A Celebrity, and her own show Diva Forever.
Piers Morgan’s Life Stories airs on Thursday at 9pm on ITV.
Character: Gemma eventually got her big break when she appeared on the 2011 series of TOWIE (pictured in 2014)