Beyoncé called out the designer of the movie poster for Austin Powers in Goldmember because they made her look “too skinny”.
The music superstar made her film debut as Foxxy Cleopatra in the 2002 spy comedy, which also featured Mike Myers as the titular character and Robert Wagner, Seth Green, and Michael York.
Reflecting on the production in an interview for Vulture, make-up artist Kate Biscoe recalled the time Beyoncé expressed her disapproval of a draft of the film’s promotional material.
“When we were shooting, someone brought her a poster that would be promoting the movie. He showed it to her, like, ‘Do you like it?’ And she was kind of like, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘What’s the matter?” And she says, ‘You made me too skinny. It’s not me.’ Then she did this hourglass shape. And he said, ‘Okay, we’ll fix that,’” she remembered of the conversation. “She walked away to go do the scene, and I looked at him and smiled, like, ‘Is that the first time that you’ve ever had an actress ask to make her body bigger?’ He was like, ‘Yes. It’s going to cost me thousands of dollars, but I am going to do it.’”
Elsewhere in the conversation, director Jay Roach described how he knew Beyoncé was perfect for the part shortly after he met with her and her mother Tina.
“Her mom was very much into blaxploitation movies. She could tell that was the DNA for Foxxy. Her mom was so cool and so helpful and instantly had ideas for us,” he shared. “Beyoncé and Mike hit it off like crazy. Instantly I could tell there was chemistry with them. I do remember one other person that we considered for it, but Mike designed the character for Beyoncé.”
After Austin Powers in Goldmember, Beyoncé went on to appear in 2006’s Dreamgirls and 2009’s Obsessed.