15 Actors That Went Through Drastic Transformations For Their Roles

By Priyanshi Mehra | 1.9k | 05 Jul 2018

To give justice to a role, actors not only have to get themselves into the character mentally, but also physically. Whether it is loosing weight or gaining it, actors are willing to do anything that takes to make the characters that they are playing look as real as possible. Here's a list of extreme transformations that they went through for their roles:

1. Matthew McConaughey

For his role of a man dying of AIDS in the movie-Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew lost 38 pounds to give the physical appearance of a man dying due to an illness. Before achieving his target, he had a talk with Tom Hanks for his views regarding his weight loss. Furthermore, for his role in Gold, he gained over 40 pounds.

2.Christian Bale

An Academy Award Winner, Christian Bale, has transformed his body in all ways to give justice to his roles. He truly is a chameleon when it comes to physical transformation! Whether it was to drop down to 121 pounds for his role in The Machinist or to gain over 100 pounds for his role of Batman in Batman Begins, he has done it all. He even managed to gain a whole lot of weight for his character in American Hustle.

3. Chris Pratt

After spending years as Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation, Chris lost 60 pounds in six months, while gaining serious muscles, for his movie Guardians of the Galaxy. For doing so, he increased his calorie intake and drank a lot of water.

4.Matt Damon

Matt Damon, for his role to play a drug addicted veteran in the movie, Courage Under Fire, lost 40 pounds in a very little time. He even had to be put under medical supervision because of this quick loss and it took two years for his body to regain its health.

5. 50 Cent

The rapper went from 214 pounds to 160 pounds in nine weeks. He did so for his movie-All Things Fall Apart in which he plays a student in senior year of college, suffering from cancer. His workout routine became such a hit that he even brought out his own workout book called 'Formula 50'.

6. Chris Hemsworth

Chris dropped to 185 pounds pounds for his character in Rush in four months. Before this, he bulked his body for The Avengers. He then went onto bulk back up with an additional 35 pounds for his role as Thor in the movie Thor: The Dark World. For this, apart from working out, he also started eating every two hours to help him achieve his goal.

7. Matthew Fox

Matthew Fox took five months to loose 40 pounds to play the role of a twisted serial killer in Alex Cross. He did circuit training, with no breaks for as long as half hour. He also brought changes in his nutritional diet to achieve his required results.

8. Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks didn't exercise and got all fat to give the appearance of a middle aged man. He then took an year to lose around 50 pounds and grow out his hair for his role's demand of spending time on a deserted island in the movie Cast Away.

9. Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper took the task of gaining around 30 pounds of muscle to look like Chris Kyle in American Sniper. He reached his goal in a period of three months. His hard work paid off, for his was nominated for best actor in the Oscars.

10. Jake Gyllenhaal

Gyllenhaal gained 30 pounds and a bulk of muscle for his role of Billy Hope, a world-champion boxer in the film Southpaw. He went up to 175 pounds in just six months for this role. Before this, he lost 30 pounds in order to play his role in Nightcrawler.

11. Adrien Brody

Adrien lost 30 pounds in six weeks, for his role in The Pianist. This hard-work paid off for he was the youngest ever actor to win Best Actor in Oscar for this role. Eight years later, he finally gained 25 pounds to play the role of Royce in Predator.

12. Russell Crowe

For his role of Roman general Maximus in Gladiator, Russell lost 40 pounds. Just before this role, his role in The Insider made him gain 50 pounds, thus making the physical transformation more difficult this time. His efforts payed off as he won the Best Actor Award in Oscars for his role in Gladiator.

13. Jared Leto

Jared gained 60 pounds for his role of Mark David Chapman in the movie Chapter 27. He went to extreme when he went down to as low as 114 pounds for his role of a transsexual with AIDS in the movie Dallas Buyers Club. This role made him win an Oscar, thus, his hard work got paid off.

14. Colin Farrell

Colin Farrell gained 45 pounds in two months for his role in the movie The Lobster. For this, he just went on eating and restrained from exercising. He said that this actually had its effect on his health, specially his sleeping pattern.

15. Ryan Reynolds

For his movie Blade: Trinity, Reynolds gained 20 pounds of muscle and lost a lot of weight just to achieve the sleek body. It took him five months to do so. For his role in Deadpool, he added 7 pounds of muscle. He had different nutritional and workout plans for both of these movies.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of the website.
Priyanshi is currently pursuing Bachelor of Arts in Economic Honours from Kamala Nehru College, Delhi University. Lazy days with a perfect movie/series is her idea of paradise.