Debby Ryan Hopes Fans Will Watch 'Insatiable' Before Passing Judgment

Debby Ryan Hopes Fans Will Watch 'Insatiable' Before Passing Judgment

Debby Ryan wants to clarify some misconceptions about her upcoming Netflix series Insatiable.

The former Jessie star took to Instagram on Saturday (July 21) to respond to some of the opinions she’s already heard people share.

“As someone who cares deeply about the way our bodies, especially women’s, are shamed and policed in society, I was so excited to work on Insatiable because it’s a show that addresses and confronts those ideas through satire,” she begins. “Satire is a way to poke fun at the hardest things, bring darkness into the light, and enter difficult conversations.”

“I have to laugh at my pain, otherwise I’ll dissolve and weep and get stuck instead of working through it,” she continues. “It’s a coping mechanism and, for a lot of people who are telling these stories, a healing mechanism. Over the last few days I’ve seen how many voices are protective and fiercely outspoken about the themes that come into play in this story. I’m grateful for that, and comforted by it, because I want those stories told right too.”

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“Twelve years into my own struggles with body image, struggles that took me in and out of terrible places I never want to go again, things I choose every day to leave behind, I was drawn to this show’s willingness to go to real places about how difficult and scary it can be to move through the world in a body, whether you’re being praised or criticized for its size, and what it feels like to pray to be ignored because it’s easier than being seen,” she adds. “It was very important to Lauren Gussis, our writer and showrunner from whose brain and heart and life the character of Patty was born, as well as to me, that any scenes where Patty was heavier don’t use her size as a punchline, and never justify the abuse she suffers. The humor is not in the fat-shaming (or thin-shaming, slut-shaming, virgin-shaming, ‘glam-shaming,’ for fans of Arie’s season of the Bachelor…). The redemption is in identifying the bullies and saying ‘this is not okay.’”

“We’re not in the business of fat shaming,” she shares while going on to discuss her character. “We’re out to turn a sharp eye on broken, harmful systems that equate thinness with worth.”

“I hope fans will wait and watch the show before passing judgment,” she finishes. “If you go for this ride, I think you’ll recognize both yourself and the things that make you mad about our fractured and beauty-obsessed culture.”

Read Debby‘s entire statement below. Insatiable premieres on August 10 on Netflix.

@insatiable 🖤

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Credit: Paras Griffin; Photos: Getty
Posted to: Debby Ryan, Insatiable, Television