Craziest Actor Body Transformations in film, we can all think of one or two that come to mind straight away. It can’t be that hard to act, can it? Many of us have probably imagined ourselves as aspiring stars who, with a bit of luck and some help memorizing the lines, could quite easily play leading roles. Actors themselves know, however, that the job takes a great deal of talent and dedication. Wearing some make-up or perhaps a fake mustache is not enough to slip into character.
Here at Let’s Talk Movies, we want to pay tribute to the celebrities who have taken their body transformations to extremes, those who have worked physically and mentally to portray their characters as authentically and accurately as possible. Many of these actors have won prestigious awards for their work. Below see and learn about the dramatic changes these stars underwent for their craft!
7. Chris Pratt, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’
Chris Pratt learned that superhero movies mean business when he was put through his paces for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. A grueling workout and diet overhaul led the star to lose 27kg with help from personal trainer Duffy Gaver and nutritionist Phil Goglia.
“Three or four hours of consistent, ass-kicking hard work” each day, along with a 4,000-calorie diet, and plenty of water, helped him transform himself for the role. Throughout the day, I was peeing all the time. Pratt described that part as a nightmare.
6. Jared Leto, ‘Chapter 27’
For his role as John Lennon’s assassin, Mark David Chapman, Jared Leto gained more than 30 kilograms – a process that later gave him gout. Besides pizza and pasta, he ate olive oil and soy sauce mixed with melted Haagen-Dazs ice cream.
“Towards the end of the shoot, one of the glaring issues was the pain I had with my feet,” he said after the film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2007. “I couldn’t walk for long distances. I had a wheelchair because it was so painful. My body was in shock from the amount of weight I gained.”
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5. Tom Hardy, ‘Bronson’
Tom Hardy went through intense and very specific training for the 2009 biopic Bronson, in which he played notorious prisoner Charles Bronson. “You need a specific kind of training to achieve dense muscle,” he told AskMen. By the time I had finished, my legs looked like those of a stork in comparison to the top half of my body. I had to quickly put a lot of weight on my forearms, chest, and neck in order to ‘become’ Charlie Bronson.
4. Natalie Portman, ‘Black Swan’
Natalie Portman lost almost 10kg for her Oscar-winning role as a perfectionist ballerina in Black Swan. A diet of carrots and almonds sustained Portman, and she spent more than eight hours a day rehearsing, during which she dislocated a rib.
“There were some nights I thought I would die,” the actress said about preparing for the role. My first understanding of how an actor could get so engrossed in a role that it could take him or her down was this experience.
“All dancers are always dancing with an extreme injury. Not just a sore muscle, they’re dancing on a sprained ankle or with a twisted neck or something. You’ll see them do incredible stuff and then limp off stage, straight to a bucket of ice. Part of the art is hiding all the pain.”
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3. 50 Cent, ‘All Things Fall Apart’
Aside from his usually ripped physique, 50 Cent is known for many other things. Curtis Jackson, real name Curtis Jackson, shocked fans back in 2011 when he portrayed a cancer-stricken football player in All Things Fall Apart.
For nine weeks, he spent three hours a day on the treadmill and survived on a liquid diet. Additionally, he had a number of tattoos removed for the role to “save time covering them”.
“I was starving,” the star later said in an interview.
2. Matthew McConaughey, ‘Dallas Buyers Club’
McConaughey shed his rom-com image in the Oscar-winning Dallas Buyers Club, as the real-life Aids patient Ron Woodroof who challenged the US government to bring unapproved medication to others.
To play the role, McConaughey lost 22kg by eating fish, egg whites, and tapioca pudding on a grueling diet.
In an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, McConaughey said, “I didn’t torture myself. I was militant. The hardest part was making the damn choice.”.
In order to portray the character authentically, he felt a responsibility to lose weight. He said, “It was my responsibility.”. “If I looked how I look now and played Ron Woodroof from Dallas Buyers Club, you are out of the movie the first frame.”
The role won him an Oscar for Best Actor.
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1. Christian Bale, ‘The Machinist’
Christian Bale’s transformation for The Machinist is among the most dramatic in film history. Trevor Reznik, Bale’s character, suffers from extreme insomnia, resulting in severe weight loss.
In preparation for the role, Bale lost almost 30kg by eating only one can of tuna fish and one apple per day, equivalent to about 260 calories. Additionally, he was allowed one black coffee and one glass of water. Bale also intensified his cardio regime to speed up the process.
Before he was asked to pack on the muscle for Batman Begins, Bale gained 45kg, only to be told by director Christopher Nolan to shed 10kg of that weight.
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