Our ecclectic, early hippie decor Texas farmhouse was transformed into the home of the Grape Family in 1993 for the movie What's Eating Gilbert Grape. The six month marathon began when I noticed from the barn that three casually dressed men were wandering around the farmhouse snapping photos and videotaping. You knew instantly they weren't realtors, but living near Austin, Texas, they were probably movie people. We ate lunch at the local 290 Cafe and when I mentioned our farm motto we had been trying to shake for 15 years "nothing works but us", they were sold on our place.

Excerpted with permission from Radiance: The Magazine for Large Women.

Gloria Cahill writes from interviews with author Peter Hedges and Darlene Cates in the same Spring 1995 issue of the magazine Radiance, "Gilbert Grape's first incarnation was in a dramatic monologue that Hedges wrote for a faculty recital when he was teaching at Bennington College in Vermont. "I liked Gilbert," says Hedges, and so he decided to continue exploring the character. But because he was writing the play as a vehicle for some of his young actor friends, he knew that casting the role of the mother would be nearly impossible. "I had to create a parent who isn't seen, but is talked about, and that's when I came up with the idea for the mother. I thought, We'll just have her inside all the time."

Darlene says in Radiance "I was a member of a support group called TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly). They met at my home on Saturdays, because I wouldn't go out. The producers of the Sally Show called the TOPS national headquarters and said they were doing a show about fat women who didn't want to leave their home, and they'd like somebody who was still trying to deal with their weight. TOPS called the regional directors and our regional director called me and said, "Darlene, do you want to go to New York?" And I said absolutely not. In the first place, I couldn't see how I could. They assured me that they would take care of everything. They would rent a wheelchair, provide all the transportation, even make me a dress to wear. Their actual words were: Don't worry, it won't be a problem. I couldn't see how it wouldn't be, but in a very big act of faith, I took the step. I had some misgivings, but I also knew that I had been asking God for help for a long, long time. And I thought this might be where it was coming from."