16 Male Actors Who Transformed Their Bodies Drastically For A Movie

Hollywood actors often face immense pressure to conform to unrealistic body standards, especially during filming. The need to drastically alter their physiques often leads to unhealthy diet and exercise habits. Here are some male actors who have opened up about their own experiences with transforming their bodies for the big screen:

1. Mark Wahlberg gained 30 pounds for the movie Father Stu (2022), where he played a boxer who becomes a Catholic priest who lives with a rare muscular degenerative disease.

He said, "I was just turning 50 by the time we finished the movie, and I was eating 11,000 calories a day. That drastic weight gain really took a toll on me over the course of the last seven, eight months."

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2. Charles Melton gained around 40 pounds for his role in the movie May December (2023).

The director Todd Haynes said that he wanted Charles to gain the weight to "change his chiseled self into something more familiar: a suburban man in this place."

3. Kumail Nanjiani gained about 25 pounds of muscle for the Marvel movie Eternals (2021).

To do this, he worked out five days a week doing a bodybuilding split, where he focused on one or two muscle groups at a time. He also followed a high-protein, moderate-fat diet and kept his carbs low during the week and then loaded up on the weekends.

4. Joaquin Phoenix lost 52 pounds for Joker (2019) because director Todd Phillips thought the character would be "super thin."

Joaquin lost the weight with the guidance of a doctor, but said the experience still affected his eating habits and mental health afterwards.

5. Matthew McConaughey lost 47lbs for his role as an emaciated AIDS patient in Dallas Buyers Club (2013).

He got down to 143lbs in a super unhealthy and unrealistic way, which left him “always hungry and irritable.” McConaughey said the whole process was “tough going, I’m not going to lie. The dieting was pretty hardcore. I was losing 7lbs every week. I’d have a Diet Coke, two egg whites in the morning, a piece of chicken, then another Diet Coke.”

6. Jared Leto also lost 40 pounds for the film Dallas Buyers Club (2013). He's said the weight loss affected him. “It changes the way you walk, the way you sit, the way you think.”

7. Jared Leto also lost 28 pounds to play a heroin addict in Requiem for a Dream (2000). At one point he was even chewing on shoe leather to try to curb his hunger. This unhealthy behavior left him “in a constant state of hunger,” and he said he “started fainting when I was on the set.”

8. Jared Leto also gained 60 pounds to play Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's murderer, in Chapter 27 (2007). The diet caused him to get gout. "I couldn't walk long distances; I had a wheelchair because it was so painful. My body was in shock from the amount of weight I gained."

9. Christian Bale lost 63 pounds in the four months of pre-production for The Machinist (2004). His daily diet was an apple, a can of tuna, and coffee.

10. Christian Bale also put on 40lbs in a short amount of time to play former Vice President Dick Cheney in Vice (2018).

To gain the weight, he shared the one specific food that he ate often. “I’ve just eaten a lot of pies, so far,” he told Variety. He also went to a professional to help him gain the weight. "It’s never healthy to put on that amount of weight in a short amount of time, but I did it in the healthiest manner," he said.

11. Bradley Cooper had to gain a noticeable amount of weight for his role in American Sniper (2014). He ended up gaining over 40lbs while training.

Bradley said, “It was a real shock to my body. If it’s pizza and cake, that’s one thing. Putting 6,000 calories a day in your body gets old quick.” During this time, Bradley's daily diet included five meals, a pre- and post-workout drink, and energy bars.

12. 50 Cent lost over 50 pounds in 10 weeks to play a cancer patient in All Things Fall Apart (2011).

He did this by having a liquid diet and running on the treadmill for three hours a day. His manager told him to see a doctor when a lot of the weight came off, but 50 Cent said, "I just didn’t want to go because I had to match the look in my mind. I was so into what I was doing that I wasn’t really concerned with that. I just kept looking at myself in the mirror feeling like I have to be smaller. I had to match.”

To lose weight, he ate only 500 calories a day. “At one point, a day’s rations were a boiled egg, a couple of crackers, and a celery stick,” he said.

14. Matt Damon lost 50 pounds for a role as a heroin addict that required only two days of filming in Courage Under Fire (1996).

His diet consisted mostly of chicken breast. His daily intake was around 100 calories, and he ran 13 miles a day, which caused him to experience hot flashes and dizzy spells. The diet damaged his adrenal gland, and he spent a year and a half on medication to try and fix it.

15. Tom Hardy bulked up a lot for his role as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012). He gained over 30lbs for it.

He said about the drastic physical change, "I haven't damaged my body, but I'm certainly a bit achier than I used to be! I certainly have joints that click that probably shouldn't click, you know what I mean? And carrying my children is a little bit harder than it used to be."

16. And finally, for The Midnight Sky (2020), Georgle Clooney lost 30 pounds to play an astronomer with cancer.

George ended up hospitalized with pancreatitis four days before filming began. “I think I was trying too hard to lose the weight quickly and probably wasn’t taking care of myself,” he said.

If you’re dealing with an eating disorder and need someone to talk to, the National Eating Disorders Association helpline is 1-800-931-2237. For 24/7 crisis support, text “NEDA” to 741741.