Megan Hilty Happy To ‘Smash’ Body Stereotypes On Television

“Smash” beauty Megan Hilty is proud to be standing up for the “normal” sized woman on television.

“I’m just not normally what you see on television, which is something that I really appreciate about what NBC’s done in casting me,” Megan, who plays Broadway beauty Ivy Lynn on “Smash,” told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover on Monday’s Access Hollywood Live. “I’m very, very thankful that they’re casting people with normal figures.”

In the drama, Megan plays Ivy, a Broadway actress and singer who has been around the block, but has been waiting for her breakout role. And, in this show within a show, she’s set her sights on the part of Marilyn Monroe.

In some of the imagined musical numbers, both Ivy and Katharine McPhee’s character, Karen Cartwright, are imagined as the blond icon.

When asked about getting into the Marilyn role, Megan said the curves in her costume are all hers.

“There is no padding, that’s what you get for casting someone with a real body on TV,” she said. “No padding involved, but the wig kind of makes Marilyn, I think. I really felt it once the hair was right.”

In previews of the show, it’s been hinted that Megan’s Ivy Lynn may fall into a casting couch trap in the hopes it will pay off, but without revealing anything about who gets the Marilyn gig – Ivy or Karen, or even someone else — Megan said the romantic relationship will grow.

“It goes a little further than a casting couch per se,” she told Billy and Kit. “It’s much more than trying to get a job, it’s a real relationship and it’s a very unconventional one, but you’ve got to tune in to see where that goes.”

“Smash”debuts Monday, February 6 at 10/9c on NBC.