Hollywood is known more for beauty than it is for health. In real life, celebrities are just like everyone else. They have their favorite, not-so-healthy foods too. In the search for an awesome bod, they go to some pretty big, and sometimes pretty bad, extremes.
But nobody puts their bodies through the wringer quite like an actor. In an attempt to portray their character right, they’re willing to do all they can to look the part, including having the right weight. That may mean a pretty severe change for the actor’s body – whether it be becoming drastically underweight, or gaining a lot in just a little time.
1. Anne Hathaway
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For her role as Fantine in “Les Miserables,” Anne Hathaway shocked the audience by debuting an emaciated body. In a Vogue interview, she admitted that she went to extremes that were “a little nuts.” After going on a strict cleanse and losing 10 pounds, she took two weeks off and lost an additional 15. She nearly starved herself, only eating two squares of dried oatmeal per day.
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2. Jared Leto
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Not all roles call for severe weight loss. In fact, plenty of roles call for the other extreme. Jared Leto took on the role of Mark David Chapman, John Lennon’s murderer, for the biopic “Chapter 27” in 2007. The part required him to gain 67 pounds. Leto was no stranger to changing his frame for a role. He became skeletal for his part in the 2000 movie “Requiem for a Dream,” but his body changed more permanently after his weight gain. Leto force-fed himself to gain weight quickly and developed gout from the experience.
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3. Natalie Portman
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Ballerinas are known for having smaller bodies and Natalie Portman was expected to live up to this standard for her role in “Black Swan.” Portman told the Daily Mail she was “barely eating” while working on the film and she was practicing up to 16 hours a day. She claimed that she was “method acting without intending to” in pursuit of doing the role justice. She lost 20 pounds for the film.
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4. Mila Kunis
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Like her counterpart in “Black Swan,” Mila Kunis had to lose 20 pounds for her role. She was only 95 pounds during the shoot. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Kunis claimed that her body “has never been the same.” After being just “skin and bones,” she gained the weight back in different places, changing her frame as the weight that used to be in her chest relocated to her stomach and her hips.
Although she doesn’t want to go through another body transformation, Kunis admitted that, if an offer for a role that required one came along again, she’d do it.
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5. Charlize Theron
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Charlize Theron won her first and only Oscar for her role in “Monster” in 2003. For the part of Aileen Wournos, a prostitute who becomes a murderer, Theron was forced to gain thirty pounds in a few short weeks. She admitted that she turned to unhealthy foods to pack on pounds fast, gorging on Krispy Kreme doughnuts. When she got sick of doughnuts, she took to eating chips and didn’t go anywhere without having a bag on hand.
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6. Gwyneth Paltrow
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As someone who is big on health and fitness, Gwyneth Paltrow did not enjoy the experience of having to gain 20 pounds for her part in “Country Strong.” She claimed that the worst part of it all was being told that she was not allowed to work out. As soon as the shooting ended, she felt that her body was falling apart and she was quick to lose the excess weight.
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7. Russell Crowe
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For his role in “Body of Lies,” Russell Crowe gained 63 pounds, with the help of a diet of cheeseburgers for breakfast and plenty of cupcakes.
At first, Crowe was actually enjoying himself, eating what he wanted, whenever he wanted. It was not until he got his cholesterol checked that he started to worry about what he was doing. He found that, after only a short time of gorging, his cholesterol was in dangerous territory.
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