Scrubs star Eliza Coupe hits out at criticism of her premiere look after fans voice concern
Scrubs alum Eliza Coupe is hitting back at recent comments about her appearance.
On March 19, Coupe posed in a gold dress with a plunging neckline and fur jacket at the premiere of her new Netflix show, The Residence.
The actor, known for her role as Denise “Jo” Mahoney in the final two seasons of Scrubs, plays Margery Bay Bix, a senator from Colorado, in the new series about a fictional murder scandal involving the staff of the White House.
Her red-carpet appearance quickly gained traction online as some people on social media expressed concern about her health and said she looked “unrecognizable.”
Coupe then took to Instagram on Saturday to issue a response, sharing footage of herself that she’d documented throughout the last month. “Pictures from my camera roll from the past three weeks,” she wrote in the caption.
She specifically addressed the criticism about her appearance in the hashtags of her post, which included: “This is what I really look like,” “Haters can hate,” “I choose love,” “Remember who you are,” and “transmute.”
In the Instagram Reel, the Happy Endings star shared a range of videos of herself, including one of her posing in her black fur jacket. Another clip showed her taking a walk outside, while a third featured her hair in curlers as she got ready for an event.
In the comments section, fans and some famous friends came to Coupe’s defense.
“You CRUSHED it in the residence. Obsessed with your ability to steal a scene. Press coverage is so ridiculous, go figure they try to drag a woman down rather than build her up,” one fan wrote.
“Yes! Show them! Absolute hit job on you for NO REASON,” actor Alice Evans added. “You have tons of support and love as these comments show and you are a delightful human.”
A third person commented: “Gorgeous inside and out! Talent, beauty, and you’re freaking hilarious! Keep doing you boo.”
After Coupe attended the premiere of her show at The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, critics on X compared her appearance to when she was on Scrubs from 2009 to 2010.
The negative commentary came only a month after Coupe opened up about her struggles with body image. During an appearance on Nicole Burch’s The Funny Thing Is podcast, the actor recalled her difficult relationship with food.
“I was so broken, I couldn’t get fixed enough for the relationship because I had damaged it with my own s***,” she said. “Some may call it an eating disorder, I just call it my life. My drug of choice was always food. The reason I stopped drinking was because I got into a 12-step food program.”
She remained in the program for seven years, monitoring everything she ate, which ultimately affected her relationship with food.
“I am grateful for all the tools I learned from it,” she said. “I would over-exercise, and there was a sprinkle of bulimia in there.”
During an interview with Bon Appétit in 2017, Coupe shared that she struggled with food issues before she started acting. She also acknowledged that throughout her years in the industry, she’s become more aware of the scrutiny actors face about their looks.
“I’m in such a high-stress job where women have to wear tight dresses all the time, and if I eat something that messes me up, I’ll be so cripplingly uncomfortable that I can’t go 12 more hours of shooting without freaking out,” she said. “Worrying about it makes it worse, because I am an incredibly anxious person. When I was 23, I cut all sugar out of my diet, quit drinking, and found yoga and breathing and stretching.”
