Melissa McCarthy responds to critic who called her 'tractor-sized,' 'female hippo'

Actress Melissa McCarthy arrives at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards in Culver City, California April 14, 2013. (Reuters)

Melissa McCarthy has broken her silence on critic Rex Reed's insults about her weight — and she's taking the high road.

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In a new interview with The New York Times, McCarthy responded for the first time to the harsh weight comments Reed wrote in his "Identity Thief" review for The New York Observer in February. The review was riddled with insults, including calling McCarthy "tractor-sized," a "female hippo" and "a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success."

While McCarthy's initial reaction to the review was, "Really?" followed by, "Why would someone OK that?" she explained that she didn't take the criticism to heart. "I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate," McCarthy said. "I just thought, that's someone who's in a really bad spot, and I am in such a happy spot. I laugh my head off every day with my husband and my kids who are mooning me and singing me songs."

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McCarthy, 42, admitted that had this happened when she was 20, "it may have crushed me." But now that she's raising daughters Vivian, 6, and Georgette, 3, "in a strange epidemic of body image and body dysmorphia," she said that comments like Reed's "just add to all those younger girls, that are not in a place in their life where they can say, 'That doesn't reflect on me.'"

McCarthy made headlines earlier this week after a U.K. poster for new her movie "The Heat" noticeably (and quite poorly) digitally slimmed down the star's face and neck. McCarthy has not commented on "The Heat" poster.

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