Denise Black was told she was 'too disabled for TV'
Soap star Denise Black has recalled being told that she was "too fat and too disabled for TV".
Denise Black was once told that she was "too fat" and "too disabled" for TV.
The 67-year-old actress was born with a condition that affects the muscles in her arm, thereby causing her fingers to cross over each other, and Denise was once told that it would limit her opportunities in the TV business.
The actress - who previously starred in shows such as Coronation Street, Queer as Folk, and Emmerdale - said on the How to be 60 podcast: "I'm not going to name the TV companies, but I've been told I'm too fat for television, I'm too disabled for television. All this kind of – 'you've got to fit in and you don't fit.
"My experience of being a woman was a lack of self-esteem, a lack of certainty that I was right, a desire to please, to look good, to feel very chastened when people pointed out things that were wrong with me.
"I've been told several times, by agents and television companies and photographers,' you've got a lovely face; it's a shame about your body.' It lowers your self-esteem. I'm a great one for 'love people as they are."
Denise actually made a concerted effort to hide her condition for most of her career. And the actress thinks her condition actually got worse because she tried to hide it.
The former soap star said: "I think the reason it's like this is because for 30 years I hid it out of the camera under the table, and it clawed over through lack of use. There's a regret. I don't think you get into your 60s without the odd regret."
Meanwhile, Denise previously admitted that she would be up for reviving her Coronation Street character if “the story was good”.
Speaking in 2021, she told Inside Soap magazine: “I saw on social media recently that Denise had given Daniel £40,000 - she’s doing better than me!
“Having seen Daniel as a man now, I could never understand why Denise didn’t go back; maybe we’ll find out, maybe we won’t.
“Rob Mallard, who plays Daniel, was huge fun to work with.
“And God, he’s a good actor. I stayed with him when I was filming and we had such a laugh together.
“If there was a need for Denise and the story was good, then I would love to go back.”
