Posted in: Fox, TV | Tagged: Ally McBeal, Calista Flockhart, Feud, fox, fx, invincible

Ally McBeal: Calista Flockhart Felt "On Trial" Over Clothes, Weight

Calista Flockhart on the controversies that hit FOX's Ally McBeal, including body-shaming & being tagged anti-feminist because of her skirts.

Published Sun, 21 Apr 2024 21:37:08 -0500

by Tom Chang

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Article Summary

Calista Flockhart faced body-shaming and anti-feminist backlash on Ally McBeal.
She described the show controversies as absurd and felt "on trial" for her image.
Ally McBeal's cultural impact included the iconic CG-dancing baby arc.
Post-Ally McBeal, Flockhart has roles in hit shows like Brothers & Sisters and Supergirl.

Before landing her signature series as the title character in Fox's Ally McBeal, Calista Flockhart established herself in TV and film since her on-screen debut in soaps like Guiding Light and As the World Turns. She landed memorable roles on Disney's Quiz Show (1994), Drunks (1995), and United Artists' The Birdcage before landing the David E. Kelley series. Ally McBeal follows the romantic and personal misadventures of the title character, who works in the Boston law firm of Cage and Fish, and her colleagues. While the series received critical acclaim through its five-season run from 1997-2002, Flockhart ran into the type of misogynistic roadblocks as an actress in Hollywood – much less one in the leading role – that was prevalent in the 90s/2000s.

Ally McBeal Star Calista Flockhart Felt on — Calista Flockhart in "Ally McBeal". Image courtesy of 20th Century Television

Ally McBeal Star Calista Flockhart on Weight and Anti-Feminist Criticisms

"My short skirts, allegedly the death of feminism, and, of course, people were talking about my weight… I felt like I was on trial for something. It was bizarre," Flockhart told The Times of London (via Deadline Hollywood). "I never knew if my heart was going to break into a million pieces or if I was going to die laughing. It was that absurd… To me, the show was about one woman who happened to be vulnerable and weird. I didn't think she was representative of all women."

Ally McBeal featured an ensemble cast including Greg Germann, Jane Krakowski, Vonda Shepard, Peter MacNicol, Lisa Nicole Carson, Portia de Rossi, Lucy Liu, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Gil Bellows and Albert Hall. One of the biggest contributions in pop culture history is the CG-dancing baby arc in season one, which represents Ally's biological clock as it dances to Björn Skifs and Blue Swede's 1974 hit Hooked on a Feeling. The series also featured recurring guest appearances from Regina Hall, Robert Downey Jr, Dyan Cannon, James Marsden, and Hayden Panettiere. Since the end of the series, Flockhart's been featured in ABC's Brothers & Sisters, FX's Feud, CBS/The CW's Supergirl, and Prime Video's Invincible. For more about her life and career, you can check out the interview here.