Melissa McCarthy Talks “Spy” Success, New Clothing Line

Neilson Barnard/Getty ImagesMelissa MCarthy’s latest movie, Spy, opened in first place last weekend, and the actress is ecstatic.

“I’m having the time of my life,” the 44-year old actress tells People.

McCarthy says in the past, female comics had to “look crazy” to prove their comic worth, but she feels the landscape is changing.  “I just think that we’ve gotten rid of, luckily, a lot of those guidelines,” says McCarthy. “Funny is funny, and it can come in eight billion different shades and flavors, so I think it’s silly to kind of limit it.” 

In Spy, McCarthy gets to play around with wigs and costumes to create her character, desk-bound CIA analyst turned field operative Susan Cooper.  She says she loves the transformation: “When I read a character that I really, really love, I know immediately what they look like. It’s like I want to 100 percent become that person.” 

Plus, acting alongside hot action hero Jason Statham is a bonus.  “Jason Statham was literally crawling up my body like a ladder,” she says. “And I was like, ‘What am I doing and how did I get here? And how delightful is this?’ ” 

McCarthy is also set to unveil a new clothing line this fall — Melissa McCarthy Seven7, for women sized 4-28, “because women do not stop at a size 12,” she says.  “You look much better when you’re comfy,” says the star, who wears her own designs on the red carpet.

McCarthy — who balances her career with her family that includes kids Vivian, 8, and Georgie, 5, and her husband, actor-director Ben Falcone — said her clothing line is a childhood dream coming true.

“From grade school until age 20, I had one thought in my head, which was doing women’s clothing,” McCarthy says. “To get to come back to it, is kind of crazy. It’s pretty dreamy.”

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