Somewhere in r/fauda on Reddit, there’s a thread where loyal fans analyze every frame in which someone asks, with a mixture of confusion and sincere concern, whether Itzik Cohen was wearing a fat suit in the fifth season. From mild shock to something that nearly resembled an intervention, the responses varied.
One user commented, “His fingers looked swollen”. Some weren’t quite as cautious about what they said. It’s the kind of conversation you’d expect from a fandom that has followed every season of the show since it became one of Netflix’s most serious international dramas; it spreads quietly but swiftly.
For the majority of his public life, Cohen has been navigating questions about his body, something that almost none of those commentors seemed to be aware of or possibly chose not to look up. In 1996, Cohen established a drag performance band in Israel, long before Gabi Ayub.
In the 2009 film A Matter of Size, he portrayed Herzl, a morbidly obese man who learns sumo wrestling. He also portrayed Roger De Bris in The Producers and Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. Thirteen Ophir Awards, Israel’s version of the Oscars, were nominated for that movie. Cohen received a nomination for Best Actor. His body image wasn’t a one-time occurrence. He purposefully placed this material at the core of his craft.
Cohen underwent bariatric surgery in 2013 and lost about fifty kilograms. It’s not a small footnote. For a public figure, it signified a noticeable, substantial change that the compassionate audience absorbs without fully understanding it. Early seasons of Fauda featured a trimmer version of Gabi Ayub, the tough and caustic Shin Bet handler that viewers grew to adore.
This image became ingrained in the collective memory of the show’s audience. It was evident that something had changed by Season 5. The dialog periodically alludes to Gabi’s age, his fatigue the feeling of a man who has been at this too long and is aware that the weight had returned. The show itself appeared to be aware of this.
Many times, bariatric surgery is misinterpreted as a long-term solution that simplifies a complex relationship with the body. Doctors won’t say as much. Over time, weight frequently returns, especially during stressful, disruptive, or difficult times.
Currently 57 years old, Cohen is working on a program that tackles some of the most emotionally and politically charged topics in modern Israeli history. Filming for Season 5 took place in the midst of events that completely changed the area. Even though it’s impossible to know what he’s personally carried, it seems worth taking that context lightly.
A few viewers did notice another small but intriguing detail: Gabi Ayub smoked heavily in previous seasons. He doesn’t appear to do so in Season 5. Anyone who has ever given up smoking or witnessed someone close to them do so knows what frequently happens.
Gaining weight after quitting is so typical that it’s almost a cliche. It’s difficult to determine if that was a personal decision, a character decision, or both. Pure before-and-after thinking tends to flatten out the on-screen image; it adds a layer.
The irony in this situation is difficult to ignore. Decades later, a man whose most well-known on-screen role involved portraying a character characterized by society’s abuse of his body is now experiencing the same dynamic in comment sections regarding his own appearance.
Reactions like “double takes”, “comparisons to co-star Lior Raz” “surprise at how much space he takes up” are common. They also show how quickly a person’s complexity crumbles when something unexpected is captured on camera.
The performance itself hasn’t altered. In Season 5, Cohen’s Gabi Ayub is still witty, multifaceted rooted in a fatigue that feels well-deserved. Few television supporting roles are able to make a character feel fully inhabited. The work is still present and worthwhile to watch, regardless of what is going on off-screen. In the end, that may be the most important thing to focus on.