An actor’s job is to tell a captivating story and transform into a character that
the audience would find believable.
However, even with the option of prosthetics and computer-generated imagery, most dedicated
actors will go to extreme lengths to be as realistic as possible.
But what happens when those lengths end up causing them harm??
Imagine gaining weight for a role only to find out the extra pounds came with a disease
that will cause you pain for the rest of your life?
Find out which of your favourite actors has to live with gout, as we give you a list of
actors who scarily transformed themselves for a movie.
Charlize Theron - Monster
It’s hard to believe that this beautiful sought after Hollywood bombshell can look
anything but breathtaking.
And we’re not the only ones who think so.
Casting directors struggled to see it, too.
The day the actress stopped taking beauty serving roles, she never looked back, but
it wasn’t always that easy because no one believed she could do it.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve auditioned for a role, only to have my agent
come back and say, “Listen, Charlize, they saw you in the orange dress, and they don’t
think you can do it.”
Luckily for Theron, there was a director who hadn’t seen the orange dress and was more
than happy to cast her for the role of the American serial killer and sex worker, Aileen
Wuornos.
Theron transformed from the head turner we all know into a sunburnt, alcoholic man-killing
sex worker with bad hair, damaged teeth and a potbelly.
Theron wanted to portray the woman as best as possible, and that did not exclude her
appearance.
“This wasn’t a game we were playing called ‘Let’s try to make Charlize look ugly.’
I didn’t want it to look like a caricature.
I just wanted it to look like Aileen.”
To achieve the look, not only did Theron gain 30 pounds, but she also went as far as shaving
and dying her eyebrows, getting her hair professionally thinned and cream to make her skin look bad.
This glamorous star is known for transcending her roles beyond expectation.
Theron consistently portrays strong female characters who are dark, daring, vulnerable,
and inspiring.
And she makes sure she goes that extra mile to give viewers what they paid for.
Take a look at her transformation, from the rebel war captain in Mad Max to Megan Kelly
herself in the film Bombshell.
The most recent drastic transformation of the Oscar winner, either than The Old Guard,
was a role in Tully.
Okay, yes, that is a prosthetic tummy, but it would not look realistic if the actress
had not gained 50 pound to complement the stomach.
Although the actress is known for embracing a complete physique change to convince the
audience, this time around, she felt the consequences of creative choices.
The actress felt so unhealthy she thought her life was in danger.
‘It was brutal in every sense,’ she explained.
‘This time around, I really felt it in my health.
The sugar put me in a massive depression.
I was sick.
I couldn’t lose the weight.
I called my doctor, and I said, “I think I’m dying!”
And he’s like, “No, you’re 41.
Calm down”.
Christian Bale The Machinist
Okay, for this one, we’re going to show different photos of Bale in other characters
so that you have an idea of the amount of times this actor has physically altered his
body for our entertainment.
But the most notable character for us that still has our jaws hanging on the floor will
have to go to his role as Trevor in The Machinist.
In the 2004 dramatic thriller, Bale plays a severely anorexic man who questions his
own reality.
“When you’re so skinny that you can hardly walk up a flight of stairs... you’re, like,
this being of pure thought,” Bale explained, recalling his filming experience.
“It’s like you’ve abandoned your body.”
The committed actor adopted a diet months before the production.
It consisted mainly of an apple, water and coffee a day.
Bale was also smoking a lot, which is known to reduce appetite.
His total weight loss added up to an entire SIXTY TWO POUNDS.
Although Bale is known for being almost unrecognisable each time he takes on a new role, the portrayal
of Trevor puts his health at risk, making the actor turn away from ever doing anything
that drastic again.
“I can’t keep doing it.
I really can’t,” Bale explains.
“My mortality is staring me in the face.”
But what is extreme for the star?
Because even after the tolls he faced with his weight loss in The Machinist, the actor
still took on characters that left his health in lousy condition.
His role in American Hustle is no exception.
Bale went from 185 pounds to 228 gaining 43 pounds in total.
He also adopted a bad posture that ultimately caused a back injury.
Rooney Mara - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
You’ve seen this beautiful star in films such as Her, Carol and The Social Network.
But her role as Lisbeth is one of her most memorable.
The actress sacrificed her sanity and social interaction for the film by staying alone
in Stolkholm months before the production was ready to start.
But that is not the sacrifice that surprised fans the most!
Mara committed to the character’s physical appearance chopping off her hair and going
for this somewhat edgy yet bizarre hair-do.
She shaved and bleached her eyebrows, which left her unrecognizable even for herself “But
I was fine because I knew it was going to be really helpful for getting into character.”
And lastly, she got piercings, not only on her eyebrow, lip and nose but in other “not
so public” areas too.
The actress stayed out of the sun to gain a pale complexion, lost weight and adopted
a black wardrobe to complement the dark and mysterious character.
“Before, I dressed much girlier,” she says.
“A lot of blush-coloured things.
Now I literally roll out of bed and put on whatever is there.”
But when production was not convinced that their leading lady could look strung out,
Fincher urged her to “Go out and get really, really drunk and come in the next morning
so we can take pictures of you.”
They must’ve finally bought it because we sure did.
Jared Leto - Chapter 27
Leto is also known for being open to changing how he looks for any role that deserves it.
In fact, if you think about all the movies he has appeared in, he looks different in
each one.
He gave us an eyebrow-less Joker, a severely thin transgender woman, and an overweight
assassin in the movie 27 Chapters.
The actor was cast to play the role of the man who killed John Lenon, but the killer
was a lot chubbier than Leto, and instead of allowing prosthetics to do the job, Leto
had no issues putting on a whopping SIXTY-SEVEN pounds.
Once the weight gain set in, the star regretted the choice that left him feeling unhealthy
and unable to walk to set.
The actor’s body did not agree with the lengths he had gone to portray the character,
and before he knew it, Jared was diagnosed with gout, which is a type of arthritis characterised
by severe pain, redness and tenderness in joints.
“I’m not sure it was the wisest choice,” he admits.
“A friend of mine was recently going to gain weight for a film, and I did my best
to talk him out of it.
Just because you can lose the weight doesn’t mean the impact it had on you isn’t there
anymore.”
Although it is the most notable of Leto’s transformations to name, it is the most regrettable
for the actor.
In addition to changing his body, Leto also changed his voice to echo the murderer’s
eerie sound, which didn’t leave the actor as scared as his weight gain did.
The only thing that could’ve left the actor feeling traumatised would be the realisation
that he is voicing a ruthless killer.
Other than that, Leto was driven to achieve the vocal aesthetic of his character.
“He was very bottled up, and you could hear it in his voice,” Leto says.
“Everything was closed off.
He barely ever speaks above a whisper, and everything is kind of choked off in the throat.”
Tom Hanks - Cast Away
Unlike our other mentions, Tom Hanks is not known for drastic transformations, so when
this came to our attention, we were completely stunned to learn that the actor put himself
through the most for his role in the film Cast away.
And we can assure you: it wasn’t easy.
The movie begins with Hanks as a middle-aged man.
He had to gain weight for that first half of the film before production took a ONE YEAR
break for the actor to lose all that and even more weight and grow out his hair to resemble
the man who was lost at sea.
Did you even recognise him through that mane and facial hair?
Cause we sure didn’t.
To achieve the puny body frame of someone who was stranded in the middle of the ocean,
Hanks did precisely that.
Well, not the “lost at sea part” - that would have taken things a little too far.
But knowing what we know now about some of the conditions these actors put themselves
through, we can’t say it would’ve been surprising.
What we were referring to is the actors’ diet.
Hanks starved himself to “set” by eating foods and portions of someone who was stranded
at sea.
He only ate foods that would fit in the palm of his hand, and they had to be under 600
calories.
So he basically ate air?
The drastic eating plan that came to be famously coined as the “Cast Away” diet hurt Hank’s
body.
But health issues are nothing new to this actor.
“I went to the doctor, and he said, ‘You know those high blood sugar numbers you’ve
been dealing with since you were 36?
Well, you’ve graduated.
You’ve got type 2 diabetes, young man.”
Well, we hope he doesn’t take on any more roles that could harm him in the long run.
What did you think of today's list?
Which actor’s transformation was the most surprising for you?
Let us know in the comment section below, but we’re
almost going to be Christian Bale’s paperweight man who was hard to look at.
And that’s all the celebrity news has for you today.
Thank you for choosing Rumour Juice.