When you think of Kat Dennings, it’s easy to associate her with 2 Broke Girls, a show in which she played the sharp-tongued Max Black for six seasons. A skilled cupcake creator, she found in Caroline Channing a perfect ally and roommate. They found themselves at a pivotal moment in their lives, both working at a picturesque diner in Brooklyn’s rougher neighborhoods, pursuing their parallel ambitious business venture: launching a cupcake bakery. Making that dream come true required a great deal of energy over many seasons, and, reflecting on that period in her career, Kat Dennings recalled a rather uncomfortable episode that left her feeling unsettled.
2 Broke Girls, Kat Dennings fought to remove a scene that made her uncomfortable
Airing from 2011 to 2017, 2 Broke Girls helped solidify Kat Dennings’s fame. Long after that chapter closed, the actress remembered a troubling incident that pushed her to say no. Using TikTok as a launching platform, she posted a video recalling a request she received during production: “At the beginning of 2 Broke Girls, I think it was the first or second season, we did a read-through of the script. In one of those episodes, there was a scene where Max and Caroline wore only bras. They wore only that and ran around the apartment. The scene showed only us two in our bras.”
The actress stressed that she wasn’t interested in performing that scene for several reasons: “Back then I didn’t have much influence to say no, because we were young and very lucky to be part of a successful show. But after reading the script, I went to the showrunner Michael Patrick King and told him: you have to remove the bra scene or have us wear clothes during the scene.” As Dennings recounts, initially the showrunner opposed her request, saying: “But the scene is this.” And Dennings retorted: “You’re not paying me enough for a bra scene. And indeed the scene in question was cut. The moral of the story is: never underestimate yourself. And besides, they weren’t paying me enough, though I think no one could.”
It’s not the first time Kat Dennings has spoken about experiences relating to her body in the entertainment industry. Not long ago, at the start of the year, the actress also recalled how she began attending auditions as a young girl, around 12, and even then she faced negative comments: “There wasn’t much inclusivity. It was a very tough environment. I received many extremely negative remarks, and people did not hesitate. I would go to an audition, do it, and then my agent would call me to ask how it went. The response was: ‘Well, they thought you weren’t pretty enough, that you were fat.’ But it didn’t break my spirit. I thought I’d show them.”
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