Actress fat-shamed after co-star struggles to carry her during filming

He stumbled after taking a few steps and she can be heard laughing.

A behind-the-scenes clip of Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty shows Li Landi's male co-star, Xin Yunlai, struggling to walk while carrying her for a scene.

The video, recently uploaded on the Chinese drama's Weibo account, even showed that a close-up shot of Yunlai carrying Landi was actually filmed with the actress sitting on a ladder lifted by two crew members. 

A barrage of negative comments soon followed the revelation.

Shortly after the historical romance drama was aired on Dec 14, netizens started to fat-shame the 20-year-old actress, whose round face they said was the result of weight gain. 

They took to Weibo to express their displeasure, calling her out for her weight by saying she was "too fat" to play the character, which is supposed to be "charming and beautiful" according to the novel that the drama was adapted from. 

"Is there no other actress?" one Weibo user commented while another said: "She still dares to talk after being so fat, it really tarnishes the actor label". 

When Landi was announced as the female lead in the drama, many netizens disapproved of the casting, criticising the actress for not being pretty enough to play the role. 

Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty, which is produced by the same team that produced the popular 2011 drama Scarlet Heart, had many comparing Li Landi to Cecilia Liu, who played the lead role then.

Despite the slew of negative comments, several netizens came to Landi's defence, stating that her weight was nobody's business.

"Even if she's fat, she weighs 50kg at most. I think the male actor is just too weak to carry her," one commented. 

The online criticism caught the attention of the actress who responded in a live video. 

Landi admitted that she looked rounder while filming as her hectic schedule made her "days and nights feel like a blur." It took a toll on her body and caused some bloating due to hormonal imbalance, she said.

However, Landi remains largely unaffected by the negative comments and even jested about losing weight only after the drama and not "when she needed to the most".

claralim@asiaone.com