We've heard of suffering for your art, but some actors take it to extremes.
It's one thing to do your own stunts, but it's another to completely change your body
in drastic ways to nail a role.
Some stars eagerly embrace the challenge of transformation, and still feel the burn after
the filming stops.
Here are a few movies that seriously damaged actors' bodies
Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises
It's abundantly clear that Tom Hardy isn't afraid of a little hard work.
He got into massive shape and broke a few bones when he played an MMA fighter in Warrior,
and stayed in shape to play Max in Fury Road… where co-star Charlize Theron accidentally
broke his nose.
But it was as everybody's favorite Bane that he really blew our socks off.
"Bane!!!!!!!"
….Wait, not that one.
This one.
It was his turn as the beefed-up Bane in the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises that Hardy
admits was the hardest.
Speaking with The Daily Beast, Hardy said that adding all that muscle weight to his
slight 5'9" frame took a huge a toll, saying,
"I've probably damaged my body too much.
I'm only little!
If I keep putting on weight I'll collapse like a house of cards under too much pressure.
I think you pay the price with any drastic physical changes.
It was all right when I was younger, to put myself under that kind of duress, but I think
as you get into your 40s you have to be more mindful."
Comic accurate?
Not even close.
Could still kick our butts inside out?
Absolutely.
Matt Damon in Courage Under Fire
Maybe he felt like he needed to prove himself, but early in his career, Matt Damon lost 40
pounds to play a role in the 1996 war drama Courage Under Fire — and his body came to
regret it afterwards.
The rapid weight loss caused lasting effects with his blood sugar.
Damon told Movieline,
"I ran six miles in the morning and six miles at night, and I'd drink four to six pots of
coffee to be able to run that distance.
...I wouldn't waver from my diet.
It got so bad that when my girlfriend kissed me, I'd have to wash my mouth out because
I could taste the oils on her lips from the food she'd eaten."
Humblebrag about his greasy girlfriend aside, even director Ed Zwick was shocked at how
thin Damon got, and told him to eat.
Damon refused, and as a result, Damon had to remain on medication to moderate his blood
sugar for a year and a half.
He clearly learned his lesson: for The Martian, he simulated his character's severe end-of-movie
weight loss with digital effects instead of actual starvation.
Ben Foster in The Program
Known as a character actor more than a leading man, Ben Foster shines in just about whatever
he does, and is completely willing to change his appearance for a role.
When Foster got the chance to play the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong in the 2015 film The
Program, he went all in… and that included taking performance-enhancing drugs as part
of his research, just like Armstrong.
While Foster maintains that the drugs were legal and taken under doctor supervision,
he told the BBC that, unsurprisingly, those drugs messed with his body for quite awhile
after the film was wrapped, saying,
"I had a great doctor, which helped me handle some of those consequences.
But it took about half a year to get my levels right, and I would say for any athlete, you
have to ask, 'Where are your values?'"
Reportedly, those values included literally eating dirt to get a better feel for his character
in Lone Survivor, and buying, but not taking, meth for his role in Alpha Dog.
Gotta draw the line somewhere.
Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey has always been known for his incredible good looks, but these days,
the actor seems hell-bent on transforming that handsomeness into something else — and
it all seemed to start with his Oscar-winning performance in the 2013 Dallas Buyers Club.
The then-44-year-old dropped nearly 50 pounds for the role.
Describing the experience of losing the weight, the actor told the BBC,
"I did it in as healthy a way as I found possible.
I met with a nutritionist.
I gave myself four months to lose the weight.
I had my programmed meals, lost 3.5 pounds a week — like clockwork — and got down
to my desired weight, which turned out to be 47 pounds lighter."
While McConaughey never mentioned having any long-lasting problems, it did change him a
little, because he's never looked quite the same since.
See if you even recognize him in 2017's Gold, for which, among other things, he gained weight.
Chris Hemsworth in In the Heart of the Sea
Actor Chris Hemsworth also took the extreme weight loss plunge for his part in 2015's
In the Heart of the Sea, where he plays Owen Chase, a man stranded at sea.
The actor lost 33 pounds to accurately convey Chase's the suffering, but he admitted it
took quite a toll on his body and his mind, more so than building muscle weight for Thor,
which he told Good Morning America.
"The gaining is fine, you just eat a lot and you lift weights but that was underfed, which
led to a pretty moody existence and inconsistent emotions and so on."
Hemsworth only ate about 500 calories a day, consisting of boiled eggs, salads and, quote,
"nothing much."
As an actor, Hemsworth wanted to play it real.
"You know, in order to do it justice - the story - we had to suffer in some way and we
did.
It was, you know, there was not a whole lot of acting was required."
Even more impressive, Hemsworth was able to rebound from the extreme change well enough
to return to the extremely buff, extremely Mighty Thor.
Christian Bale in The Machinist
If there's a prize for crazy extremes actors endure for their craft, the award goes to
Christian Bale, who's known to, uh… really get into his roles.
"What the… f--- are you doing?
Are you professional or not?"
"Yes, I am"
" Do I f---ing walk around and rip.."
NO! Shut the f--- up Bruce!"
He gained weight for American Hustle, and bulked up to play Batman.
But it was his turn in the 2004 indie film The Machinist that became his most infamous
transformation.
To play a person suffering from insomnia, Bale lost 65 pounds by basically eating a
single can of tuna fish or an apple a day, along with drinking black coffee and water.
Even the health professionals he consulted with warned Bale to not go too far, but he
ignored their advice, telling Moviepilot,
"I had been to a nutritionist and when I had got down to what she had told me was a healthy
weight, I just went, 'You know what?
I can go more than this.
I can keep going.'
So I lost another 20 pounds below what she said I should stop at."
While the transformation was stunning, Bale explained more of his experience.
"I didn't actually feel bad until I started eating again.
It was when I started putting the weight back on, that I did it somewhat too rapidly.
...You know, putting the weight back on I just wanted to consume pizza and donuts."
While Bale managed to bounce back, it's a pretty good bet he won't be taking another
role as a psycho skeleton in the near future.
Then again, who wouldn't want to see a movie called Psycho Skeleton starring Christian
Bale?
Answer: no one.
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