EXCLUSIVE: Gabourey Sidibe Opens Up About Weight-Loss Journey, Past Career as a Phone Sex Operator
Gabourey Sidibe is opening up.
ET's Jennifer Peros sat down with the 33-year-old actress in New York City on Monday, where she opened up about her new book, This is Just My Face, Try Not to Stare -- and everything in it.
"I was a phone sex operator from the ages of 21 to 24," Sidibe confessed. "It is improv. I actually was doing that not knowing that it was preparing me for like, Precious. Like, [it's] so stupid. That was my acting school. That was my Juilliard."
Funny enough, Sidibe, who just directed her first short film, says she was warned that her past would be a "scandal" when Precious came out.
"There was this whole thing," she said. "[But] I went looking for the job. It's not like I fell and tripped, like I was some naive little girl. I went looking for a phone sex job."
The Empire star also revealed that she lost her virginity at age 20, calling herself "basically a grandma."
"I call it a 'hoe phase,'" she said. I think everyone goes through a promiscuous phase... I was out dating."
Now, Sidibe said she is "dating the hell out of my book" and focusing on her health following her weight loss surgery last year after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
"I am happy!" she said of life after the surgery. "[I'm] not dead. And I am also like, really glad that the way I did it, I did not tell too many people."
"The thing about my body is that it is mine," she explained. "The only opinion that mattered was mine. And that's just the way I kept it."
"I am working on myself," added Sidibe of what she hopes readers will take away from her book. "There is no end of the line here. I am constantly moving forward."
WATCH: Gabourey Sidibe Breaks Silence on Undergoing Weight-Loss Surgery: 'I Want to Do a Cartwheel'