Sheryl Lee Ralph is getting candid about everything from her longstanding marriage to her health journey. But her recent comments are sure to earn a chuckle out of everyone.
Speaking in a new interview with PEOPLE for their cover story, the “Abbott Elementary” dished about her active lifestyle and explained why she’d put her physical health on more of a pedestal recently. The impetus? One day of filming an episode of “Abbott” and a puzzling comment from her doctor.
“On ‘Abbott’ the cameras are all around. One time I got a shot of my behind, and I was like, ‘Oh, hell no!’” Ralph said before later adding of the doctor’s appointment: “The doctor said, ‘You are obese on the inside. I said, ‘What?’”
Those hilarious moments were the tipping point for the veteran actress to get serious about slimming down—but don’t get it twisted, she’s not going the Hollywood route and taking Ozempic any time soon:
If that would have worked for me, I would have. I would do anything to have the best health I possibly could. He [her doctor] said, ‘Change the way you eat, work out, drink water.’ When the doctors tell you that stuff, you’ve got to do it. Because there are certain things like fresh air, sunlight, those are very good medicines. Very good medicines. Your health is your greatest wealth, and too many of us do not pay attention to it until it’s gone.
And while Ralph may be doing all she can to get snatched when it comes to her body, she’s not too convinced she’ll go nipping and tucking at her face any time soon. But she’s not exactly ruling it out all together.
“My face is my face. That’s my choice. Anybody else wants to do anything to their face and it works for you? Do you,” she said.
She later added: “Who knows. That might change when I’m 80... I tell anybody, ‘Do what you need to do for yourself. You want that filler, baby? Get filler. You want that shot, baby, get that shot. You need that facelift, honey, go on, get that facelift. You feel good about yourself? Good. That’s what matters.’”