'I Was Not a Super Heavy Person': Christine Taylor Says She Was Asked to Slim Down for 'Brady Brunch Movie': 'Of Course, I Was Embarrassed'

Christine Taylor is looking back at a Hollywood request that left her feeling embarrassed.

Appearing on the September 2 episode of "Office Ladies," the podcast hosted by The Office stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, she recalled being asked to lose 10 pounds before landing the role of Marcia Brady in The Brady Bunch Movie.

“The one thing that I got, and I was not a super heavy person, but they asked me to lose 10 lbs.,” Taylor said.

The actress admitted that she was caught off guard by the request, even though she was willing to do whatever it took to play the iconic character.

“They wanted me to lose 10 lbs., but it didn’t matter. I was like, ‘I’ll lose 10 lbs.,’” she recalled, adding, “Of course, I was embarrassed when that ask came my way.”

Taylor described the experience as “so ’90s,” noting that the entertainment industry was “a very different time” back then.

The Zoolander actress added that such a request “would never happen today,” while acknowledging that she was far from the only actress who was asked to lose weight for a role during that era.

For the 55-year-old star, however, the pressure was particularly notable because she already felt deeply connected to Marcia Brady. The Brady Bunch had been her favorite after-school escape growing up, and she knew the character inside and out.

“It was on every single day, probably in like the 4:30 or 5 o’clock hour,” she recalled.

“I just remember coming home from school and watching The Brady Bunch. Like every single episode, I’ve seen backwards and forwards, inside out," she continued.

Her obsession with the classic sitcom eventually worked in her favor. Before auditioning for the 1995 movie, Taylor had already played Marcia in The Real Live Brady Bunch, a live stage version of the series.

She even received a surprise call from the sitcom’s creator, Sherwood Schwartz, who wanted to meet her.

“I went to Sherwood Schwartz’s house and got to talk to him about The Brady Bunch,” Taylor said, adding, “It was a pinch-me moment that I cannot believe to this day that I still didn’t keep my little tape from the answering machine.”

When she finally auditioned, the Hollywood star was convinced she was the right person for the job.

“I knew it so well,” she said, before adding, “Nobody could do it better than me.”

She ultimately landed the role and brought Marcia into the modern world for the comedy. But the 10 pounds she had been asked to lose didn't exactly stay off throughout production.

Taylor joked that viewers can actually spot her weight changing from scene to scene because of reshoots.

“I’ll come into a scene looking a little rounder, and then I exit the scene looking a little thinner, just because of how they had to reshoot things,” she said.

At one point, she and her roommate also began treating themselves to frozen yogurt after long days on set, complete with “a huge thing of sprinkles on the side.”

The actress was only 23 when she played teenage Marcia and said she was “coming into a woman’s body” at the time. Still, she never seriously worried about losing the part.

“If I don’t get this job,” Taylor remembered thinking, “then I don’t know that this is the business that I should be in. This was made for me.”

She went on to reprise Marcia in 1996’s A Very Brady Sequel, cementing her place in Brady Bunch history.