Get ‘Physical’: New series lets Rose Byrne unpack fitness baggage

As an aerobics instructor in the new series, “Physical,” she was constantly turning up in leotards which, she says, “are within an inch of their life.”

Considering the number of fittings she had – “an inch here, a pinch there, a lift here” – she actually liked them. “I feel incredibly secure in them.”

Her character, Sheila Rubin, deals with personal demons by exercising. That, in turn, leads to starting a business and becoming a lifestyles guru during those nascent years of video aerobics.

“The show really tracks her journey when she discovers this new source of joy and power in her body,” says Annie Weisman, executive producer. “She’s also in this moment when video technology is really starting to boom and she catches a wave and comes up with this great idea to put this kind of liberating physical exercise onto videotape.”

Set in the 1980s, it’s about paving the way for wellness and lifestyle gurus who “are now sort of a dime a dozen,” Byrne says. “But, back then, they were groundbreaking.”

While Byrne, one of the stars of “Damages,” “Bridesmaids” and “Neighbors,” never followed any self-help gurus (“I’m Australian – we have a healthy skepticism about anybody who’s telling us what to do”), she did warm to the series’ story of growth.