When an actor completely immerses themselves into a role, the result is usually stunning. Sometimes though, what’s more impressive is the work that went in before filming even began. Changing appearance for roles has become quite common in movies today, but occasionally, an actor’s physical transformation goes far beyond a bit of make-up or a haircut, like Christian Bale in, well, most of his films.
In The Dark Knight Rises, out in theatres this week, actor Tom Hardy bulked up significantly to play the menacing terrorist Bane, a new villain intent on taking down Gotham City. The actor has had to bulk up for roles before (Warrior, Bronson) and in honour of his dedication, we look back at ten actors who have undergone remarkable physical transformations for their roles.
To start, let’s look at the aforementioned Mr. Hardy.
Tom Hardy For The Dark Knight Rises
Tom Hardy has never been slim, but in the photos and video clips of the actor in character as Bane, he looks absolutely massive. Fanboys have complained that Hardy doesn’t look like someone that can bench 1,500 pounds, but the actor has certainly thrown himself into the role, putting on over 30 pounds in just 3 months.
This isn’t the first time that Hardy has bulked up for a role either. He looked absolutely ripped in Warrior and put on quite a bit of mass for his titular role in Bronson (see below).
Hardy attributes his muscle gain to a diet very heavy in chicken and broccoli. He also said that all he did was lift weights, eat, and be careful not to run anywhere for fear of losing weight during his preparation for The Dark Knight Rises. Though his transformation may not be as extreme as some of the other ones on this list, it’s still impressive and it earns our respect.
Natalie Portman/Mila Kunis For Black Swan
The girls of Black Swan both dramatically slimmed down further than their already slender figures to fully get into their roles. The weight they lost may not be as much as other actors on the list, but considering it put both of them well under 100 pounds, the percent of body weight lost was extreme.
Portman trained for a year to prepare for the role. Her meals consisted mostly of almonds and carrots. The actress was already a vegan before filming started so she ate much of the same things as she did before, just in much smaller portions. She supplemented the diet with rigorous training of up to 8 hours a day in the year leading up to filming, and as she got closer to the first shoot her workouts sometimes hit 16 hours a day.
Kunis stuck to a strict 1,200 calorie diet for 6 months, and trained for around 5 hours a day during that time. By the time filming began she was down to 95 pounds.
Transformations aside, both women gave fantastic performances as well, earning a lot of praise, which was well deserved.
50 Cent For All Things Fall Apart
Rapper/actor 50 Cent was hardly recognizable in the 2011 film All Things Fall Apart. For his role as a football player diagnosed with cancer, Curtis Jackson dropped from his normal weight of 214 pounds to a mere 160 pounds. That’s a 54 pound loss, I really can’t see any doctor being alright with that.
Jackson went on a strictly liquid diet and spent 3 hours a day on a treadmill. 3 hours folks, think about that. 50 also had all his tattoos removed from his arms because he was sick of having to spend extra time in makeup to have them covered up.
Even though the movie wasn’t a critical success, Jackon’s dedication earned him some respect in the acting world and in our eyes too. Though he may not have much talent on the big screen, his dedication is undeniable and it’s pretty damn impressive.
Charlize Theron For Monster
For an actress as stunningly beautiful as Charlize Theron to make herself appear as anything but gorgeous would take a lot of work, but for Monster it wasn’t just make-up artists that helped her take on her role as serial killer Aileen Wuornos, Theron added 30 pounds of her own to further the effect.
The appearance was greatly aided by make-up and a set of prosthetic teeth, but her performance likely wouldn’t have been as successful without the weight she gained. Her diet for the movie consisted mostly of potato chips and donuts, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in my books, but Theron only had 3 weeks between the final shoot of Monster and her next film, Head In The Clouds, which she drop back down to her normal weight for, which wasn’t easy.
Her dedication certainly paid off as it resulted in a Best Actress Oscar and was hailed as one of the best performances in the history of cinema by Roger Ebert.
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