Many actors work hard to prepare for their roles, but sometimes, they take weight gain or loss to extremes. It's not easy to lose or gain 20, 30 - even up to 60 pounds - for any reason, let alone on a timeline that has to coincide with shooting.
Needless to say, this kind of drastic weight gain and loss isn't recommended for health reasons. Most of the actors on our list had medical supervision during their journey to extreme weight change.
It's true that some characters definitely call for the kind of physique that your average A-list (or even B- and C-list) actors aren't sporting nowadays. Not everyone is slim and athletic, after all. As difficult as it must have been, though, with several Academy Award winners on the list, it seems like an effort that paid off in the long run.
15 Henry Cavill Dehydrated Himself For Those Bathtub Scenes In Witcher
Henry Cavill scored a huge global hit with The Witcher, and went through a strict regimen to get to that finely sculpted condition he displayed in the Netflix series. For those shirtless scenes, he said in an interview with Us Magazine, that he dehydrated himself for three days prior to shooting.
14 Renee Zellweger Packed On 20 To 30 Pounds For Bridget Jones's Diary
Actress Renee Zellweger's usual look is cute and petite, but she went all the way to flesh out her leading role as Bridget Jones. Renee put on between 20 and 30 pounds for 2001's Bridget Jones's Diary, lost it all, and then did it again for the 2004 sequel, Bridget Jones's Diary: The Edge of Reason.
13 Chris Pratt Shed Pounds And Gained Muscle To Star In Guardians Of The Galaxy
Chris Pratt starred in Parks and Recreation before his time came to join the MCU in 2014 - and he wasn't known for his lean physique. He admitted on social media that he'd gotten into a good-time lifestyle of eating what he wanted and drinking beer, which only ended when he needed to get into shape to play Star-Lord.
12 Jennifer Lawrence Couldn't Wait To Eat Street Food After Filming Red Sparrow
Jennifer Lawrence joins the ranks of actresses who've lost weight to play a ballerina, or an ex-ballerina in her case, and she found it hard. "I can't work on a diet. I'm hungry. I'm standing on my feet. I need more energy. I remember having a meltdown, freaking out that I had eaten five banana chips," she said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
11 Joaquin Phoenix Lost More Than 50 Pounds To Play Troubled Arthur Fleck In Joker
Joaquin Phoenix had just finished a stint bulking up to play a muscular hitman in 2017's You Were Never Really Here, but then went full method to tackle the career making role of Arthur Fleck. He lost an incredible 52 pounds for the role of Arthur, who becomes the iconic Batman arch-villain. The attention to detail paid off in an Oscar win.
10 Matthew McConaughey Lost More Than 30 Pounds For Dallas Buyers Club
In Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew played Ron Woodroof, a real person who was a real-life AIDS activist. To get his normally muscular physique to an emaciated state, he lost between 30 and 40 pounds. In interviews, however, he insisted he'd done it in a healthy way. "I'm eating fresh fish. I'm just eating small amounts. I'm not being starved...I'm taking care of myself."
9 Natalie Portman Won A Best Actress Oscar For Her Performance In Black Swan
Natalie Portman already has a lean physique, so she had to diet and train extra hard to be believable for her Oscar-winning role in Black Swan. She talked about the experience in US Weekly. "I think it was just the physicality of it all that was the most extreme. I mean, I had never gotten that much training — to be doing five to eight hours a day of it was really a challenge."
8 Charlize Theron Bulked Up To Play A Serial Killer In Monster
Like many actresses, Charlize Theron usually has an athletic body, but she didn't feel that it would properly represent Aileen Wuornos, even in a fat suit. She gained 30 pounds for the Oscar-winning role. "I knew I had to transform my body to get myself into her physical skin," she said in an interview.
7 Chris Hemsworth Lived On A 500-Calorie Liquid Diet For In The Heart Of The Sea
Chris Hemsworth wore a fat suit for Avengers: Endgame and its corpulent version of Thor. But, in 2010, he dropped a whopping 33 pounds in 4 weeks for his role as a shipwrecked captain in In the Heart of the Sea, and shocked fans when he posted a picture to Instagram. He told Good Morning America he lived on an essentially liquid diet of 500 calories a day.
6 Mila Kunis Said Her Body Changed After Drastic Weight Loss For Black Swan
Mila Kunis dropped down to a very thin 95 pounds for her role in 2010’s Black Swan. It was getting her curves back that proved to be difficult, as she told Harper’s Bazaar. "When I gained it back, it went to completely different areas. All the weight that left my chest went to my side hip, my stomach...I'd be happy if my a$$ got bigger."
5 Jared Leto Gained Weight For Chapter 27, Then Lost Major Pounds For Dallas Buyers Club
Jared Leto is a chameleon. He gained weight to play the role of Mark David Chapman, the man who shot John Lennon, for the movie Chapter 27 in 2007. Then he lost a staggering 30 to 40 pounds for his role as Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club in 2013. In an interview with The Wrap, he said he was "always hungry".
4 Lily Collins Made Sure To Regain The Weight She Lost For To The Bone
Lily Collins has had her own struggles with anorexia and bulimia, so she knew she'd have to lose weight for the sake of realism for her starring role opposite Keanu Reeves in To The Bone. Because of that history, she told People Magazine she was careful to work with a nutritionist after the shoot to regain the weight in a healthy way.
3 50 Cent Was Barely Recognizable In All Things Fall Apart
Rapper 50 Cent's usual look is bulked up and definitely in charge. That's why it was so shocking to see him playing a football player dying of cancer in All Things Fall Apart (2011). He lost more than 50 pounds to add realism to the role. Even side by side, he looks like two different people.
2 Beyonce Lost 20 Pounds To Star In Dreamgirls
Beyonce's curves are just one of the things her fans love about her. She shed about 20 pounds of that bootylicious figure, though, to star in the movie Dreamgirls, loosely based on Diana Ross and the Supremes. She told People Magazine in an interviewer that the move was her own idea.
1 Christian Bale Lost More Than 60 Pounds To Play An Insomniac In The Machinist
Christian Bale starred as Trevor Reznik, an insomniac whose psychological problems lead to a breakdown and workplace violence in The Machinist. Bale lost an astounding 63 pounds, weighing only 112 pounds. He told MovieWeb that he found the experience “calming”, because "being that skinny, because you really didn’t have any energy for expending on unnecessary things, so you just kept it simple."
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