By Page Six | Created at 2024-12-22 14:08:26 | Updated at 2024-12-22 19:34:02
5 hours ago
Harvey Fierstein is looking slimmer these days and he happily admitted “drugs” is the reason why.
The Tony winner jokingly poo-poohed Ozempic before sharing that he’s on “Zepbound,” during an exclusive chat with Page Six on Tuesday night.
The actor and celebrated playwright, 70, explained that he had gained a significant amount of weight during the COVID-19 lockdown and then lost 120 pounds after using the weight-loss drug.
“I existed on the screen of my Zoom,” he said. “So I wrote my autobiography [“I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir“], I did all the press for the autobiography.”
Fierstein, who is also an avid quilter, revealed that he was around 310 pounds at his heaviest. He lost about 120 and then “put 15 back on, which I’ve sort of stayed at that.”
The “Mrs. Doubtfire” actor has gone back and forth with his weight for many years.
“I’ve been skinny before, that’s the sad part,” he divulged. “I’ve been skinny, I’ve been fat, I’ve been skinny, I’ve been fat.”
But he said that this time the weight loss feels very different.
“What’s different is what the drug actually does for you which is I don’t feel like I’m dieting,” he explained. “I feel like a normal person. I can go and have dinner with friends and not have to eat every piece of bread on the table and then not go have ice cream when I’ve done with dinner.”
“I know what it is to be full like a normal person.”
Fierstein added that “people don’t understand that being fat is not a choice. It’s something that you’re body is out of whack and this puts your body in whack.”
“I’m a great believer in it,” he added.
The “Mulan” star made his weight loss reveal while promoting the opening of the Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab at the Library for the Performing Arts.
The space, designed by David Rockwell and made possible by a donation from Fierstein, is a performance space that he proudly hopes will help foster the next generation of artists.
It provides access to the Performing Arts’ incredible catalogue of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows and even includes access to the actor’s mother’s piano.
“The idea that in a public library, free to the public it will be this room that you can go in and create,” he shared. “Or find out if you are a creator. It’s not about producing something, it’s about producing someone.”
