One of the few success stories on network TV this season is NBC’s wildly popular This Is Us. The show has breathed new life into the careers of Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia, and it’s making stars out of relative newcomers Justin Hartley and Chrissy Metz, who play brother and sister. The story also includes another brother, played by Sterling K. Brown, who was already an extraordinary journeyman actor before this show came around. The show is already being called the weekly cry-fest, and it’s good to see a network do a solid, scripted family-driven drama. Anyway, this story is about Chrissy Metz. Metz is a plus-sized actress, and there’s a storyline on the show where her character is trying to lose weight, and she decides to get gastric bypass surgery. As Metz does press for the show, she’s been saying that it’s in her contract that she has to lose weight over the course of the show to play this character, so that everything will look realistic. People have been side-eyeing the sh-t out of Metz, NBC and the show’s producers because of that too. And now Metz has been sent out to do some damage control.

Chrissy Metz wants to clarify that her This Is Us contract does not say she has to lose weight. The 37-year-old actress had previously revealed to PEOPLE that she would have to go on the same weight loss journey as her character Kate does on the show.

“It’s definitely a conversation that we’ve had, and it’s in my contract,” she said, emphasizing that both she and Kate would be shaping up “in a healthy manner.”

But while chatting with PEOPLE at the 102.7 KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball in Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Friday, Metz clarified her previous comments.

“It wasn’t mandated in the contract, and I probably — if I ever said the word contract, I didn’t mean it in that way,” she said. “I was pitched that the trajectory of Kate is that she’s going to lose weight. That is who and what’s going on.”

While her character Kate decided to get gastric bypass surgery on the show, Metz was clear that the weight loss isn’t mandated and that she doesn’t have to get to a particular size. But she’s looking forward to the challenge of losing weight, and feels motivated by the show.

“Why not have a motivation beyond me to get to a healthy weight?” she said. “Every actor does that. We’re chameleons. We change, we grow as an actor… you lose weight, you gain weight, you change your hair or whatever.”

Metz said that she “wasn’t surprised” by the traction her initial comments received – noting that, other than Melissa McCarthy on Mike and Molly, women her size haven’t been represented often on network television.

“It’s like all people want to talk about is my weight,” she said. “I was like, ‘Okay, this is weird.’”

[From People]

My guess is that NBC freaked out when she started saying she was contractually obligated to lose weight, because A) it’s not in her contract or B) there is some gentle wording in her contract and NBC doesn’t want to publicly step into that minefield of being called out for body-policing their talent. While I understand that Metz is a unique situation, I also think it’s a terrible precedent to set for any show or network to dictate (contractually or otherwise) weight loss or weight gain for their actors. And I mean, what are they going to do if she doesn’t lose weight? Recast her with Hilary Duff?

Photos courtesy of WENN.