Why Broadway’s ‘Death Becomes Her’ Cut the Film’s Fat Suit (Exclusive) ArticlePure

When it came time to bring Death Becomes Her to Broadway, star Jennifer Simard says the show’s creative team made one decision early on: they weren’t going to use a fat suit.

The actress — who is nominated for her third Tony Award for her leading role as Helen Sharp in the musical — tells PEOPLE how moving away from the movie’s outdated tropes allowed the show to deliver an empowering, body-positive message.

For those who haven’t seen Robert Zemeckis’ 1992 film, from which the stage show is adapted, Helen (played by Goldie Hawn) famously has a breakdown after her ex-fiancé Earnest (Bruce Willis) leaves her for her glamorous frenemy, Madeline (Meryl Streep).

Presented as Helen’s rock bottom before her own journey toward vanity, revenge and immortality begins, the character is shown living in a filthy apartment surrounded by cats, shoveling vanilla icing into her mouth as she sits on a recliner obsessively rewatching Madeline’s movie. And to heighten Helen’s dramatic transformation to come in the film, Hawn wears a padded bodysuit in the scene, as if Helen had experienced a significant weight gain.

Audiences won’t see that on stage, though. “One choice we made in our production is not to have a fake, larger suit put on me like they do in the movie,” Simard, 54, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “We said, ‘That’s not something we’re going to do.’ ”

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The creative team — including book writer Marco Pennette, director Christopher Gattelli and score composers Julia Mattison and Noel Carey — instead wanted to reflect how much society has changed in the three decades since.

“It was the right decision,” she continues. “Art never exists as something you just put on a shelf and say, ‘It’s done.’ You always have to update for the climate of the present, not the past. There’s been so much progress made in terms of body positivity, and I don’t think that’s an appropriate avenue to go down anymore. It was not necessary.”

“There were other things we could do to address Helen’s devolution, without making it about her size,” Simard says. “I have talked before about my trajectory with anorexia; I would never want to do anything that would become a trigger for others out there struggling with their own [disordered eating].”

Now, Death Becomes Her explores Helen’s spiral by leaning in on the impact Earnest and Madeline’s betrayal affected her mental health.

That, too, was personal for Simard, who has been open about her past experiences with emotional wellness.

“I created a solo show called Stigma all about destigmatizing mental health issues,” she says. “So even though that scene in our show is played at a very heightened, theatrical pace, I feel like I can speak to it from an authentic place because I’ve experienced such a wide range of issues and have overcome them.”

And while playing through that trauma might be challenging, tapping into Helen’s unraveling was cathartic, Simard says.

“It’s really fun for me to use comedy to deal with my pain,” Simard adds. “I think some of the best comedy comes from pain. I’m coming to it now from a very healed place now. To me, it’s a marriage made in heaven.”

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Death Becomes Her is nominated for 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It’s now in performances at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City.

“I really do think that it is the exact kind of show we’ve needed since the pandemic,” Simard previously told PEOPLE. “It is just a big old Broadway musical, the way it was meant to be done. And I’m so lucky to be a part of it.”

Tickets to Death Becomes Her are now on sale. The 2025 Tony Awards air live from Radio City Music Hall in New York City Sunday, June 8, on CBS.

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, The Alliance for Eating Disorders provides a fully-staffed helpline at 1-866-662-1235, as well as free, therapist-led support groups.