Miriam Margolyes claims being fat gave her a more "interesting" career.
The 78-year-old actress has always been overweight and thinks her size stopped her from being cast as a romantic lead but she\'s happy about that as she\'s had such a great range of parts over the years.
She said: "Inevitably, my weight has had an effect on my career; for example, I have never been cast as a love interest, as the world doesn\'t want to know about fat people falling in love.
"But that allowed me a career as a character actress, which has been much more interesting."
The \'Harry Potter\' actress - who is in a relationship with Heather Sutherland - is "not proud" of her size and admitted she "feels disgusted" by her body.
She told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: !I am fat and I am not proud of it. I have a very happy relationship, a career I love and stimulating friendships but I feel disgusted by everything below my shoulders.
"I won\'t try to make an excuse for it either: my problem is that food brings me great joy and I eat rather too much of it.
"There\'s no food in particular that makes me put on weight, I simply eat too much when I do, and it\'s easy getting fat when you\'re only 4ft 11in."
But after making her new two-part documentary, \'Miriam\'s Big Fat Adventure\', the actress is doing more to look after her health and not gain any more weight.
She said: "Since making the programme I am more determined to look after my health.
"I\'ve actually lost half a stone without going on any diet in particular, I just told myself that it\'s a good thing to be hungry.
"Every time I hear my stomach grumble, I celebrate the fact I\'m on my way to slimming down.
"Long ago I accepted I will always be fat, but the very least I can do is try not to get any fatter."
