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Allison Tolman Reveals The One Thing that Makes Her Immediately Reject a Script
Ladies, the St. Denis Medical star has your back. Allison Tolman revealed the one "weird" thing she will reject a script over.
Allison Tolman wants to see a change in Hollywood. The Emmy-nominated actress, who currently stars on the new hit comedy St. Denis Medical opened up about the one thing that drives her “insane” when it comes to reading scripts.
After star turns on Fargo and Why Women Kill, Tolman recently returned to TV with NBC’s breakout comedy hit St. Denis Medical, a mocumentary about an overwhelmed hospital that’s full of “tender, sweet, human moments,” said the actress in a recent “Salon” interview. Tolman plays head nurse Alice, describing it as “the dreamiest job” on the “happiest set.”
Why Allison Tolman rejected other scripts
The Hollywood veteran has also encountered a few less-than-dreamy scripts in her career, and she revealed in her interview that she has a rule that helps her know when a project is a hard pass.
“If they mention the character’s body type, I pass immediately,” she said.
According to Tolman, Hollywood writers can do better when crafting character descriptions.
“It's lazy and weird to be like, ‘she’s a little overweight,’” she remarked. “I think it’s hard for actresses to read these things.”
“And they do it mostly with female characters,” she continued. “It’s so weird to describe people’s characters with body attributes. It’s bizarre for the casting process; it’s super bizarre when you get the role, and then that’s what it says on your trailer.”
Tolman described one egregious example of a description that read, "fat woman in theatre."
“Don’t do that to people, give them names, and if you can’t name them, say that she has blonde hair, say that she’s dressed loudly. Figure something else out,” she added.
Tolman has never been afraid to shut down the body shamers. In the past, she has used her platform on X to call for an end to jokes about weight.
“Writers and showrunners- take the jokes about weight out of your scripts. I promise they aren’t funny,” she posted.
Tolman is still fighting the good fight, revealing in the interview that she points out questionable and hurtful language whenever she sees it, even when she believes it may have been done inadvertently.
“Women in this industry are already doing complicated math in our brains all the time to see if we’re good enough, and if we’re ok and if we’re aging alright, and if enough people want to have sex with us we’ll be able to book roles… and I think writers can be kind and take some of that off of our plate, and not pitting us against each other and not comparing us in those ways,” stated the actress.
Why is the St. Denis Medical set so “dreamy”?
The series got the green light during the 2023 Hollywood strike and was one of the first to begin filming when it ended, explained Tolman.
“We were one of the only shows working in town. Just a really happy, grateful set to be together and to be working, so it ended up being this special kind of dreamy job for me," she explained.
The cast and crew are no slouches, either. Talents like David Alan Grier, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kahyun Kim, and Mekki Leeper create a “very joyous” atmosphere.
“This crew has been together since Superstore cause Justin [Spitzer] and Eric [Ledgin] are really good showrunners, and they keep people around, so the crew loves each other, it’s like a well-oiled machine, and we just laugh a lot.”
Catch up or re-watch all of St. Denis Medical on Peacock.
