Jennifer Gray has spoken openly about how “terrifying” it was playing Christian diet guru Gwen Shamblin in her upcoming Lifetime movie, saying she’s been struggling to maintain her weight while becoming “the personification of anorexia nervosa.” ” represented.
The ‘Dirty Dancing’ star, 62, looks unrecognizable as a frosty blonde church leader in the trailer for ‘Gwen Shamblin: Starving for Salvation’ which premieres on Saturday February 4th.
The TV movie shows how the registered nutritionist developed a cult following with her controversial, faith-based “Weigh Down Workshop” before founding her Remnant Fellowship Church in Tennessee in the late 1990s.
Shamblin, who preached about loving God through food, died in 2021 after her private plane crashed into a lake. That same year, she was the subject of the HBO Max documentaries The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gray admitted that she “didn’t know anything” about Shamblin when she first received the script. After googling the diet guru, she watched the trailer for The Way Down with fascination and horror.
Jennifer Grey, 62, opened up about her role as Christian diet guru Gwen Shamblin in the Lifetime movie Gwen Shamblin: Starving for Salvation, which premieres February 4
Gray looks unrecognizable as the frosted blonde church leader (left) in the TV movie trailer (right).
The film shows how Shamblin developed a cult following with her controversial faith-based “Weigh Down Diet” before founding her Remnant Fellowship Church in Tennessee
“I felt so much heaviness around him. My first thought was, “Well, that’s a terrifying prospect to play someone so dark who was only recently a real person on this earth,” she recalled.
“And the next thought was, how can I be part of a story that really validates a very powerful voice in our culture, which is about [the importance of] Height and perfectionism?’
Gray was concerned that by taking on the role, she would promote Shamblin’s dangerous teachings about weight and self-worth.
“I feel like as people living in this culture we are all so vulnerable to the voice of Gwen Shamblin saying there’s a shape, size and number we have to meet to be worthy of love.” to be, worthy of the love of God, worthy of attention, worthy of success,” she explained.
One of her conditions for accepting the role was that she could use the film as a platform to counter Shamblin’s message that “it’s best to be skinny.”
“She was the embodiment of anorexia nervosa, which has one of the highest or second highest mortality rates [among eating disorders],’ She said.
“I figured if I can do this and use this as a platform to raise awareness about seeking treatment and showing the madness and deception of their message, I’d be interested.”
Gray said she filmed a PSA for the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) that will run with the film to combat Shamblin’s rhetoric.
Gray (pictured) told Entertainment Weekly it was a “terrifying prospect to play someone so dark.”
The actress (pictured) was concerned that by taking on the role of Shamblins, she would be promoting dangerous lessons about weight and self-worth
“She was the embodiment of anorexia nervosa,” Gray (pictured) said of the controversial church leader
Noting that she’s grateful she “never had an eating disorder,” the actress explained that her body continues to change as she ages, but her weight is “very constant.”
She didn’t plan on altering her body in any way to play the diet guru, but to her dismay, the long hours she worked resulted in an unintended weight loss.
“My biggest problem is that while I was at work I was doing my hair and makeup for two hours and then I was working 12, 14 hour days and then I was driving to the location,” she explained.
“I’m not really good at eating crap, so my biggest challenge has been maintaining my weight. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, but I was losing weight and I didn’t like it. I like my boobs and butt! But what happened, as soon as I lose weight, I just get really skinny.’
Sarah Paulson will also play Shamblin in a screenplay adaptation of the HBO Max documentary The Way Down.
Gray (pictured) had no intention of altering her body in any way to play the diet guru, but to her dismay, the long hours she worked resulted in an unintended weight loss
“My biggest challenge was maintaining my weight. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, but I was losing weight and I didn’t like it. I like my breasts and my butt!’ she explained
Gray said she filmed a PSA for the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) that will run with the film to combat Shamblin’s dangerous rhetoric
Raised in the ultra-strict Church of Christ, Shamblin was a trained nutritionist who began her Weigh Down workshops in the 1980s.
The seminars were held in communities and, as word of mouth spread, grew to more than 250,000 subscribers in over 14,000 communities in 70 countries.
She expanded her business in the 1990s to include t-shirts, hats and a slew of books including The Divine Diet and What Would Jesus Eat?.
Rev. Rafael Martinez, a cult interventionist, explained in the documentary series The Way Down that Shamblin and her diet book were a “massive media hit.”
The Weight Down Diet: Inspiring Way to Lose Weight, Stay Slim, and Find a New You has sold over 400,000 copies and has appeared on everything from 20/20 to Larry King Live.
Raised in the ultra-strict Church of Christ, Shamblin was a trained nutritionist who began her Weigh Down workshops in the 1980s
In 1999, Shamblin founded the Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood, Tennessee to help people “turn from the love of food and to the love of God.”
After divorcing her 40-year-old husband, Shamblic remarried former “Tarzan” actor Joe Lara in 2018. They died in a plane crash in May 2021
She also embarked on national tours, with supporters appearing on stage and holding up their larger dresses to celebrate her success to a cheering audience.
Shamblin gave her approach a biblical twist, teaching people to “honor God in their bodies.” She often said, “Every time you reach for food, 15 to 20 times a day, run to God instead.”
In 1999, Shamblin founded the Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood, Tennessee to help people “turn from the love of food and to the love of God.”
Selling the love of Jesus as a diet plan made Shamblin fabulously rich. According to the documentary, she has amassed $20 million in real estate fortunes across the country. She drove a Porsche and lived in a pre-Civil War plantation home called the Ashlawn.
After divorcing her husband of 40, she remarried former ‘Tarzan’ actor Joe Lara in 2018. A former member called him an “escort” on the show.
Among the many expensive gifts Shamblin lavished her toy boy on were flying lessons. Lara was piloting a Cessna 501 when it crashed into Percy Priest Lake on May 21, 2021, instantly killing all seven passengers on board, including his wife.
Since The Way Down first premiered in late 2021, the Remnant Fellowship has countered negative publicity with a series of promotional videos encouraging inclusion and emphasizing their “family-friendly” values.