Actors Who Were Forced To Lose Extreme Weight For Role

Jennifer Lawrence getting real about her extreme diet. I'm starving. It's just really calorie-restrictive diet. I did a lot of running. Are you a runner? No. My body is not my identity. It's who I am and how I treat people. And you really devolve like a disorder. I mean, it's wild. Losing weight can be tough, even with a fleet of nutritionists and personal trainers at your side. Just ask these celebrities who were pushed to their limits in order to drop weight for the sake of a project. Joaquin Phoenix When actor Joaquin Phoenix was getting ready to play everyone's favorite DC villain, his training regime was, well, it was no joke. Playing the lead role in Joker meant dropping 50 pounds, and rumors started circling that he was losing weight by eating only an apple a day. Hey, isn't that also how you keep doctors away? But Joaquin claims he ate more than apples in order to portray Arthur Fleck. He also chowed down on lettuce and steamed green beans. See? Much healthier. Shedding pounds that quickly is no laughing matter, but thankfully, Joaquin worked with a medical professional to ensure he did so as safely as possible. Director Todd Phillips said he wanted the character to look like a malnourished wolf, and losing so much weight so quickly left Joaquin feeling like one. At least it helped him get into character. I felt like I could move my body in ways that I hadn't been able to. But it also caused some problems during filming. Since his weight changed so rapidly, they couldn't exactly go back and reshoot previous scenes. Gwendolyn Christie Gwendolyn Christie is known for her work on Game of Thrones, where she portrayed Brienne of Tarth, who was robbed of her chance at love, just like Gwendolyn was robbed of her Emmy. But to portray the brave warrior Brienne, Gwendolyn had to get in serious shape first. Trying out for Game of Thrones wasn't just another audition for this actress. She loved the books and wanted to be a part of the story. To Gwendolyn, that meant working with a personal trainer and swapping her curves for a more androgynous look. According to Gwendolyn, she lost a lot of weight, and focused on sweating off the pounds to get her body warrior-ready. She did kickboxing, kundalini yoga, and tons of cardio. There was a time when 6'3 Gwendolyn was told she would never be an actor because of how tall she is. While she can't do anything about her height, she was able to slim down enough to transform into Brienne of Tarth. Chris Pratt If you picture Chris Pratt in all his six-pack glory from Guardians of the Galaxy, you might find it hard to believe that he once topped the scale at 300 pounds. Getting ready to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe meant getting in shape. Not only did he lose 60 pounds, but he did it in only six months. If you're wondering how to drop that kind of weight that fast, the answer isn't easy. Chris admits he spent between three and four hours per day just working out. Getting ready for Ghost Draft meant hitting the gym and upping his water intake once again. Chris decided to document his weight loss journey on social media, sharing workout pics and oversharing about how often all that water makes him use the bathroom. Pee three times by 10 a.m. As far as diet goes, Chris says the secret is to get rid of beer, hash browns, burgers, or anything fried. And yes, that means no carbs. Lily Collins Whether you're a celebrity or not, losing weight is a challenge. But for Lily Collins, it was an even more daunting task. She needed to drop major pounds to appear in the Netflix movie To the Bone, where she plays Ellen, who is being treated for anorexia. The problem? Lily has also struggled with an eating disorder and was in recovery for years before she landed the role. I just wanted to feel like I was paying homage to the 16-year-old girl that I was. She worried that losing weight again might cause her to slip into her old ways and that the pounds might still drop once the camera stopped rolling. How did Lily manage to prepare for the role while maintaining her health? She did so under the close care of a nutritionist who kept her accountable and monitored her progress. Although she admits the process was scary, Lily believes her background brings a level of realism to her character. Jennifer Lawrence Celebrities are known for embarking on crazy crash diets that make our metabolisms wince. But Jennifer Lawrence is all about moderation, even when she has to lose weight for a role. Instead of forbidding entire food groups, she simply enjoys her favorite foods in small amounts and focuses her efforts on working up a sweat at the gym. Red Sparrow was her first role to require she lose weight, and Jennifer admits it wasn't easy. And then I've never been able to find that discipline ever again. Really? And then I was like, well, I can't do this for six months. She practiced ballet four hours a day and then went through a 90-minute Pilates regimen. Although it worked and Jennifer lost weight, she admits the process made her feel weak and unhappy. When she found herself melting down over eating five banana chips, she knew this way of life wasn't for her. Thankfully, director Francis Lawrence understood and got the ballet scenes out of the way in the beginning so Jennifer could get back to normal that much quicker. Timothee Chalamet Twenty pounds might not sound like an extreme amount of weight to drop, but it can be when you don't have much to lose in the first place. Just ask Timothee Chalamet, who needed to slim down He pushed his body to the limit to prepare and admits his family was worried about his increasingly gaunt frame. Timothee was determined to get the story right, but he was so committed that he was soon jeopardizing his own health. Director Felix Van Groningen claimed he eventually had to step in and declare that enough was enough. Thankfully, they got the shots they needed out of the way first, and Timothee was encouraged to return to his healthy weight for the rest of filming. Chrissy Metz There are some people who never seem to worry about their weight, but actress Chrissy Metz is not one of them. She admits she's always struggled with her weight, even as a child. At age 11, she was already attending Weight Watchers meetings and admits she had engaged in yo-yo dieting in the past. Although she tried many methods to lose weight, nothing ever stuck until her job made slimming down mandatory. When Chrissy signed onto the show This Is Us, her contract made it clear she would have to lose weight along with her character. So far, she's lost over 100 pounds just by taking daily walks and counting calories. But according to Chrissy, this isn't about the way she looks, but about how she feels, and how much her health is improving. Instead of getting caught up on what the scale says, the star is focusing on her well-being. Arielle Winter Being a child star is a great way to get a head start on an acting career, but it also has its share of downsides. Just ask actress Arielle Winter, who grew up in front of the camera on Modern Family. She's been portraying Alex Dunphy since she was only 10 years old, and although she has many fans, she's also had to deal with a ton of body shamers. People have always been quick to pick on Arielle because of her weight, but the moment she dropped some, that was all anyone could talk about. When Alex started looking slimmer, Arielle was accused of everything from addiction to plastic surgery. But according to this star, the secret to her 30-pound weight loss is a simple change in her medication. She blamed her stubborn weight gain on antidepressants, and says finding the right meds have her feeling better and losing weight. But Arielle isn't ready to just stop there. She intends to use this momentum to put on some muscle and work on her overall health. Jillian Bell Jillian Bell knew she wanted to star in Britney Runs a Marathon, but doing that means, you guessed it, running. In the movie, Britney slowly overhauls her sedentary lifestyle and starts jogging as a way to take control of her health and her life. And this is pretty much what went on behind the scenes, too, as far as Jillian Bell is concerned. She started out slowly, and before long, she was running for miles. As her endurance grew, her waistline shrunk, and over time Jillian was 40 pounds slimmer than when she started. But her transformation for this role was far from purely physical. It caused Jillian to examine her relationship with her body and silence her often-critical inner voice. She's made an effort to be kinder to herself and describes her running regime as therapeutic. Although Britney obsesses over the numbers on the scale, Jillian prefers to take a more reasonable approach to health and fitness in real life. Chris Hemsworth While his appearance as Thor in Avengers Endgame might have been his most surprising transformation yet, let's not forget about the time Chris Hemsworth lost a ton of weight. Yes, this star does take on other roles outside of the MCU, and he had to totally transform his body for In the Heart of the Sea. Although he says he wouldn't recommend the lost-at-sea diet, it was pretty fitting considering his role in the movie. He plays a sailor named Owen, who struggles to survive after his whaling ship is destroyed. In order to make it more realistic, the cast was required to gradually drop their caloric intake so their weight loss was in keeping with the passage of time. At one point, they were eating a mere 500 calories per day. At that point, Chris admits food was pretty much the only thing he could think about. For this movie, Chris lost a total of 15 pounds, which might not sound like that much at first. But when filming began, he was fresh off the film Black Hat, which also required him to lose weight. Starting out slim and moving to 500 calories a day was a process Chris described as brutal. Christian Bale Christian Bale is an incredible actor, and he's also known for his intense body transformations. When he appeared in The Machinist, he only weighed about 110 pounds, down from 173 pounds. The 63-pound weight loss was crazy enough, but then he had to pile the pounds back on in order to play Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins. Oh yeah, and he only had six months to go from this to Batman. No pressure or anything. Years later, Christian had to gain weight once again to portray former Vice President Dick Cheney in the movie Backseat. According to Christian, the secret to this transformation was a lot of pies. He claims that as he's gotten older, it's a lot more difficult to lose weight compared to when he was younger. In fact, after all these years, Christian Bale has retired. Not from acting, but from these kinds of over-the-top total body makeovers. Adam Driver When Adam Driver signed on to appear in the movie Silence, he knew he was going to have to shed some pounds, but he had no idea how much weight he would have to lose before filming was over. He started out 30 pounds lighter than normal, but continued to restrict his food while working on the project, losing another 20 pounds. So how did losing 50 pounds make Adam feel? Unsurprisingly, the answer is pretty much not great. He admits that he frequently found himself so hungry and exhausted that he barely had the energy to get through his lines. But the silver lining is that he was able to use this rawness to add another layer to his character. However, it was often more of a hindrance than a help. When a scene just wasn't working, Adam simply didn't have the strength to figure out why. Which of these transformations do you think is the most impressive? Share your pick with us in the comments section, and then click on the subscribe button to get access to all of the latest and greatest videos from us here at the Taco. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you again next time.