Jillian Lashes Out

To celebrate the imminent return of US trainers Bob and Jillian to the Australian series of The Biggest Loser tonight (or at some point this week, if the ads have been misleading and they don't actually appear in tonight's episode), I thought I'd hunt down the article Enny made reference to in a comment she left here.

It's a very interesting article for all Loser fans (particularly those who love Jillian Michaels), which was clearly written before the current season started airing:

Jillian Michaels sounds off!

The Biggest Loser's former red team coach tells why she quit the US series but still travelled Down Under to train her successor for the Australian show. She vented to Who's Star Bodies senior editor Simone Casey.

Posted Jan. 31, 2007

So the big question from all the Loser fans, including myself, is why do the Australian show and not the American show?

OK, a couple of reasons to be that honest with you. This show is a very different animal to the show in the States. It's much more truthful, I'm allowed to be myself here, like nobody tries to create a character out of me, it's like all the good, all the bad, it's a very pure picture of who I am, whereas in the States it's like a caricature, an archetype and I resented it at this point in my career. There's so much more to me and I'm starting to feel that that archetype is limiting my ability to expand my brand.

And so that's part of it, and the other part of it is that I am training a successor, which is something that I've never got to do. This girl's going to be somebody who is going to be influencing millions of people and encouraging them to get healthier lives. It's reaching a new level within this industry to be able to influence other fitness gurus who work in your field, so that's an exciting honour for me. And also, it's only a month of my life, to come down here and train a protégé and be in Sydney and work with Channel 10, which is very different [laughs] than at home.

Did you get a hand in choosing your successor?

No, I think part of me came down here to be like rough her up and get her into shape and instead I was like, I adore her, we are like fast friends and I and I think she is fabulous and we are like literally in a love fest right now and we laugh all day long.

What's her name?

Her name is Michelle. She's fantastic and I can't say enough good things about her and in my mind, and I believe this really strongly, that there's a special place in hell for women that don't help other women, Madeleine Albright said that, and nothing has never rang more true for me and so I came down here to be like "OK, you listen to me, this is the responsibility that you're going to have," but I just love her. Now it's about explaining to her what she can expect and teaching her. No trainer's ever worked in a situation where they're training the same person all day, every day, for seven days a week, for four months of the year.

It's a long time.

Yeah, I've said "Look these are the injuries that are going to come up, this is how you need to manage that, this is how you should periodise your training schedule." I'm here to help her with that, I'm here to help her with production side, I'm here to help her with the group dynamic of her team and how to try to manage the game as best as possible. For me it's nothing like what The Biggest Loser is in the States, it's a different show, it's a different scenario and it's a totally different time frame.




Whereas to us watching it, I think it does look quite similar.

Really? Your show is on six nights a week, it's three and a half hours of show. In the States it's one, and a half an hour of that one hour is all weigh-in and elimination. Bob and I are in, I can honestly say, five minutes of the American show, and it's whatever kind of BS story they want to create. And I'm in five minutes of television and 90 per cent of the time I'm hating the story they've created or I'm like "That's not what happened, that's not what I said," whereas here, I'm like, "Yeah I said that, I certainly did that." A good example would be last year in the Australian show, we had this one guy that was extremely big, David, and he couldn't run, and so one of my boys, Adro, wanted to run with him and I said "No, Adro, go and run with the girls," and Adro's telling this story and said "I wanted to run with David but Jillian was like 'no, you run with the girls'". In the American show they would've cut it and made me look like a monster. Here, Adro was like, "She was like 'you need your workout, let me run with David and you go run with the girls and get your workout on'" and shows me with David going "Come on buddy, one more step". That to me, is like, I want people to see the truth of what's really going on. In the States they would be like "She said, don't you run with David" and cut to David like struggling, "Go run with the girls". And everyone would be like "Oh my God, she's a Nazi." Do you know what I mean? I'm through with that. Through with the, like the whole eliminating 36 people in the lawn then having them all cry. I was like, you know what, find someone else, I'm not going to do it. So you never know what the future's going to hold but to me this show is just a very different animal to me and I like the way that I can just be myself.

And they show more footage.

Yeah, it's so much more compelling to me, here the show finds the story in the contestants not the scale whereas in America it's ALL about the scale, and I just feel like it lacks soul, it lacks heart, because you don't see any of the internal work the people are doing. You don't see Matt on season two get sober after 12 years of drinking, you don't see Seth deal with his mother issues and leave a dead-end job and get into school to become a physical therapist, you just see the scale.

And even though you see them get skinny and you see the scale, I'm like "OK to me that's not the story" at what point does it begin to hinder me with regard to me saying I'm not that character.

It's been great, it's been a good launching pad for me and I'm totally thankful but it starts to limit your ability to branch out and brand yourself as somebody. I honestly see myself as much more life coach, I hate fitness, I really do. I know everything about it because it's changed my life and because I'm obsessive compulsive with being the best at something that I do but fitness for me, I don't love it, I don't love to workout. Just now in my life I'm finally starting to understand what it feels like to enjoy a workout because I'm so busy that it's time for me but I hate it, I've always hated it, I'm not the girl who was teaching aerobics at 14, I'm the girl that was a fat girl that struggled, whose her mother got her into martial arts because she didn't know what to do with me I was so falling out of control , and it changed my life because it gave me a place to channel my energy, it gave me an area that I could control, it gave me something I could excel in. It redefined my self-image because I went from the fat kid in the hallway at school that everyone would make fun of, to the kid that could break two boards with her right fist and I began to walk a little taller in the hallway, you know what I mean?

Fitness to me is just a tool that I use to help people achieve their dreams. It makes them stronger physically and therefore transcends them in every other facet of their lives and they go from like the loser who can't to the person who j ust ran five miles. They go "Oh my god I never knew". And when they can see that, it's like they come alive in every other facet, they go, "Yeah I can do this, maybe I can do this, maybe I'm not that person that I thought I was,".

For Loser in the States, they just made me look like a crazy person in the gym and it's not who I am. Yes I am, but there's a good reason and there's a method behind my madness, I just started to feel limited by the portrayal so if I did go back, I don't know.

Never say never.

You never say never and if I did go back it would definitely have to be a scenario where I'd felt like I'd already expanded my brand and for it not to be a small facet of my reality and go it's almost like a character that I'm seeing on TV.

What about the personalities of the American contestants verses the Australian contestants, did you notice a difference?

Last year, yes, this year I'm going to say no. Last year there was a lot of game playing and a lot of Big Brother-type stuff going on, but this year they're very much like the Americans, they're working hard.

There were Australians coming into this game last year going "I won't workout if you don't workout," and this year they are like all in the gym.

So it's really just the mix of people.

Yeah, absolutely.

I can't wait to see the new series.

I hope you like it, so far I'm really pleased with it, it's less scandalous in the best possible way.

For more, see the Feb. 12, 2007 issue of Who Magazine (and stay watching from tonight for more - no doubt short-lived - fun with Bob and Jillian).


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