Melissa McCarthy Confronted Critic Over Sexist Review, Opens Up To Ellen DeGeneres About Abuse

Melissa McCarthy has revealed further details of her run-in with a harsh critic who provided a sexist review of her performance in Tammy during her appearance on The Ellen Show.

McCarthy was on the show to promote her upcoming effort Spy. However, Ellen DeGeneres couldn’t help but bring up a recent revelation that McCarthy made surrounding the critical reception to 2014’s Tammy. The comedy — which despite receiving a sway of negative reviews, ultimately proved to be a box office hit, grossing over $100 million — saw McCarthy working alongside her husband Ben Falcone, who directed the film, as well as co-writing it with his spouse.

McCarthy detailed one specific encounter with a reporter at the Toronto Film Festival who had basically written in response to Tammy that she’s only a good actress when she looked attractive. His scathing critique didn’t stop there though because he also went on to add that Falcone shouldn’t be allowed to direct McCarthy because he let her look hideous.

At the event McCarthy wasted no time in picking apart his review, asking him,”Would you ever say that to a man?” McCarthy then added the apt comparison of, “[What] if John C. Reilly played a really broken-down character and looked terrible?” This led the critic to respond, “Well, I mean, you really looked bad.”

This response only irked McCarthy even further though, and the actress was then forced to ask, “Do you have children? I hope you don’t have a daughter.” McCarthy insisted that she didn’t mean that in a harsh way, but only because, “If she comes home and someone says you can’t have a job because you’re unattractive, are you going to say, ‘That’s right!'”

McCarthy’s comments immediately rung true with the reporter though, because he then admitted, “No, I would never what that to happen! Never in a million years want that to happen.” McCarthy explained to the reviewer, “Just know every time you write stuff every young girl in this country reads that and they just get a little bit chipped away.”

McCarthy admitted that rather than this being a one-off issue, the media treatment of women is still a huge problem in the U.S. She continued, “I just think we tear down women in this country for all these superficial reasons, and women are so great and strong.”

This led to an impassioned response from the crowd, while McCarthy noted that the reviewer in question appeared to take her rebuttal to heart before insisting that these comments are beginning to be more and more common, and it’s a “bad habit” that many have simply gotten into.

In fact, rather than being so hurtful, mean, and callous, individuals should bring more love and kindness to the world, something that she believes Ellen DeGeneres does daily with her show.

You can check out the entire discussion between Melissa McCarthy and Ellen DeGeneres on The Ellen Show below.

Melissa McCarthy’s latest comedy Spy is due out on June 5, 2015.