Billy Bob Thornton - U-Turn (1997)
The Movie Transformation: The lithe actor’s role in Oliver Stone’s U-Turn might have been small - but that didn’t stop Thornton from developing his character of Darrell into a larger-than-life mechanic.
Three-and-a-half stone later, Thornton appeared on set sporting a gut that challenged his zipper and kickstarted the actor’s continued struggle with his weight.
Billy Bob Thornton Says: “I gained weight on purpose, and it was a hell of a thing getting it off.”
Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby (2004)
The Movie Transformation: Becoming boxer Maggie Fitzgerald, Hilary Swank had only 90 days to morph her body into that of a trained boxing lifer. Her diligent training schedule had the actress hitting the ring for two and a half hours, followed with a rigorous two hour heavy weight lifting session. For six days a week.
Of course, packing on 10 pounds of muscle as asked by the producers didn’t happen by itself. The Boys Don’t Cry actress supplemented her workouts with a high protein diet, ingesting 210 grams of egg whites, flax oil and meat. Every 90 minutes. It paid off - she bulked on 19 pounds.
Hilary Swank Says: “I needed nine hours of sleep a night because your muscles have to be able to rest in order to build or you actually reverse yourself. So I slept nine hours a night but I had to wake up in the night and drink protein shakes because I couldn't go that long without eating.”
Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables (2012)
The Movie Transformation: Already on the petit side, Anne Hathaway dropped another 25 pounds for her role as Fantine, a factory worker-turned-prostitute suffering with tuberculosis in Les Miserables .
Prior to shooting the actress shed 10 pounds in the three weeks leading up to production, by eating two small squares of dried oatmeal paste a day. As if that weren’t torture enough, Hathaway stopped eating altogether for the shoot’s final 13 days, dropping a further 15 pounds.
Anne Hathaway Says: “I had to be obsessive about it - the idea was to look near death. Looking back on the whole experience - and I don’t judge it in any way, it was definitely a little nuts. It was definitely a break with reality, but I think that’s who Fantine is anyway.”
Adrien Brody - The Pianist (2002)
The Movie Transformation: Brody’s turn as real-life Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, who hid throughout World War Two in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, was a preparation in sacrifice. The actor gave up his New York apartment, his cell phone, sold his car, and his long-term relationship - all in the name of truthful representation.
Told to lose as much weight as possible for the film’s final coda depicting a starving Szpilman, Brody dropped 30 pounds from his already-slight weight of 160 pounds. His method? Not eating much, really. For six weeks his daily intake consisted of two boiled eggs, a small piece of fish or chicken and a smattering of steamed vegetables.
Adrien Brody Says: “It was excruciating. I was extremely weak, and I mentioned it to Roman, and it was kind of what he wanted, you know? He wanted it to be truthful.”
Edward Norton - American History X (1999)
The Movie Transformation: Alright, so he wiped the floor with Richard Gere in Primal Fear, but it wasn’t until Edward Norton took to the gym that he packed a punch mightier than that of verbal cunning.
As Neo-Nazi skinhead Derek Vinyard, Norton morphed from scrawny to brawny by hitting the heavy weights in a series of strength-building exercises - mainly focusing on his upper body.
To acquire 30 pounds of muscle he stuck to a high-protein, heavy-calorie diet which consisted of fish, chicken and turkey snacks in conjunction with seven meals daily. All of that on top of what he calls “meat shakes” - blended roast beef smoothies. Yum.
Edward Norton Says: “I knew this guy was going to have to be really physically fearsome and defined by rage...arming himself against his own emotional pain, and this body he’s created is the physical manifestation of that.”
Gary Oldman - Sid and Nancy (1986)
The Movie Transformation: For Alex Cox’s punk rock biopic, Sid and Nancy , the classically-trained Oldman studied hours of footage of Sex Pistols’ bassist Sid Vicious to aid him in nailing down an authentic performance.
What was the most notable difference between the two men? Vicious was rake thin, Oldman was not. So, for weeks on end the actor survived on a veritable cuisine of steamed fish and melon, dropping a total of 35 pounds. He was briefly hospitalised mid-shoot for losing too much, too fast.
Gary Oldman Says: “I had no time to be me. I was just Sid all the time. I kind of stopped eating. I became anorexic. I went down from 150 to 115 pounds and became terribly ill for awhile. I couldn`t tell when the movie stopped and life continued.”
Toni Collette - Muriels Wedding (1994)
The Movie Transformation: The then-unknown Aussie actress wowed writer-director P.J. Hogan in her audition for the titular role of Muriel Heslop. Despite her insistence that she was perfect for the part, one tiny hitch remained: she was too thin.
Under the careful advice of a dietician, Collette saw to it that she’d bag the role. Chowing down on six meals a day, she wolfed down pizza, cake and ice cream for eight weeks - gaining an additional three stone.
Toni Collette Says: “I used to fluctuate from feeling really lethargic and gross, to feeling really sexy and curvaceous."
Christian Bale - American Hustle (2013)
The Movie Transformation: Bale’s reputation as a man who’ll undergo any metamorphosis for a role shows no signs of stopping. As former boxer-turned-trainer Dicky Eklund in The Fighter , he took to running to assume the gaunt look of the cocaine addicted coach for his first Oscar-winning performance.
For his most recent turn as Irving Rosenfeld in American Hustle , Bale piled on 43 pounds giving the usually-svelte actor a tubby tum, twinned with a dodgy homemade haircut. Going from his typical 185 pounds up to 228, he relied on good old fashioned junk food to reach his goal.
Christian Bale Says: “I ate lots of doughnuts, a whole lot of cheeseburgers and whatever I could get my hands on. I literally ate anything that came my way .”
Michael Fassbender - Hunger (2008)
The Movie Transformation: One way to demand industry attention when you’re an up-and-comer is by proving dedication to the craft, as Michael Fassbender achieved in his portrayal of a man on a hunger strike.
Steve McQueen’s Hunger tells the story of the 1981 Irish hunger strike, spearheaded by Irish Republican Army volunteer Bobby Sands, played by Fassbender. Under supervision from his doctor, the actor lost 44 pounds - around 3 stone - which saw his weight plummet to a tiny 127 pounds.
The actor restricted himself to a 600-calorie-a-day diet in addition to walking four miles a day, a spot of yoga and lots of skipping.
Michael Fassbender Says: “I ate canned sardines. The great thing is they have the calories on the box so I could count exactly what I was putting in.”
Vincent D'Onofrio - Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Movie Transformation: For his debut performance in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket , Vincent D’Onofrio tipped the scales at 280 pounds (around 20 stone) in his depiction of Private Leonard Lawrence.
His transformation from a trim 6ft chap into an overweight, suicidal marine, saw D’Onofrio gobbling down the greasiest foods he could lay his dabs on. Over the course of seven months’ gorging he added a huge 70 pounds to his frame.
During the film’s rigorous boot camp sequences, the actor caused serious damage to his knee which resulted in surgical reconstruction. No gain without pain and all that.
Vincent D’Onofrio Says: “I gained weight everywhere. My thighs were tremendous, my arms were tremendous, even my nose was fat. I had a tough time tying my shoelaces, but this was the only way I could play Leonard, because I had to be weak-minded in the same way. “
