In a world full of glamor and riches, it is nice to come across some highly dedicated individuals who take entertainment as a serious profession and put in their best to put up the best on screen. Let us delve into the lives of some such Hollywood personalities and see what brings them to a cut above the rest.
Here???s a top 10 list of actors who brought about amazing body transformation purely for their character in the films.
10. Renee Zellweger
Plumping up from size 6 to size 14 cannot not be a cakewalk for any average height tinseltown actress ??? as it takes a lot of courage to sacrifice a well-toned thin figure for an unattractive obese look.
Renee Zellweger put 20 pounds onto her 5’5″ frame to play the title role in Bridget Jones’s Diary. Soon after that, she again deflated herself to fit into the attractive thin frame for Chicago. Renee even became too skinny at one point, but she has again begun bingeing on donuts, cheese-laden pizzas and burgers for the third installment of Bridget Jones’s Diary.
9. Edward Norton
He was almost an ectomorph in Kingdom of Heaven, but Edward Norton didn???t look like the same person in American History X. A freaking awesome body that Edward built to play fanatic Derek Vinyard and which totally transformed his weedy body image into a well ripped one. Attaining this striking body transformation took him just three months. Then yet again for Fight Club – which though released before American History X, was shot after it – he reduced himself to fit in the ???thin and non-built??? frame.
8. Russell Crowe
Usually rugged and bearded Russell Crowe literally overfed himself with cheeseburgers and cakes to gain 63lbs for Body of Lies. He had gained so much weight by the time he finished shooting that he had to struggle getting in and out of his car. Russel admitted that it was the most dangerous body transformation that he brought about for any flick, as his cholesterol level had almost neared the tipping point.
7. Jared Leto
Skinny Jared Leto underwent a wild chubby transformation for his character in Chapter 27. He ballooned up majorly to play John Lennon???s assassin Mark David Chapman. It was rumored that he used to gulp down gallons of a mixture consisting of olive oil and ice cream on a daily basis. Even more impressively, Jared came back to his weedy self merely six weeks later.
6. Charlize Theron
Being a glamorous sex symbol, what the actress did for Monster was truly commendable. Gaining 30 lbs, shaving her eyebrows and wearing contacts and prosthetic dentures, she made herself look gross for playing crazy killer prostitute, Aileen Wuornos. True transformer!
5. Eric Bana
It must take real guts to sacrifice a hard-earned ripped body to embrace a bulging obese figure. Eric Bana proved he could go for any extreme to show his mettle in acting. As Mark Read in Chopper, Eric became a real transformer. He stopped exercising for a few weeks and ate anything and everything to gain those ugly looking extra pounds. This is what I call dedication.
4. Matt Damon
Matt Damon lost up to 40lbs over just 100 days for his minuscule role as a heroin-addict soldier in Courage Under Fire. His dedication was commendable, as he brought about the transformation without having any professional guidance and training. However, his health was badly strained by his weight loss and he had to undergo adrenal medication for two years.
The devoted actor then once again plunged to bring about another extreme transformation, this time he had to beef up and look 10 years older than what he is. For Steven Soderbergh’s thriller, The Informant, the actor has put on 30lbs. Catch the movie in October this year to watch the exceptionally changed Matt Damon.
3. Robert De Niro
Transforming your body around two extremes for a single movie is simply astounding. To portray young big muscled boxer Jake La Motta in Raging Bull, Robert gained 60 pounds. However, toward the end it’s amazing to see a somewhat older, worn-out and pot-bellied Jake. Showing such a remarkable transition to such a distinctive body image in the end of the movie, Robert leaves the audiences dumbfounded.
2. Vincent D???Onoforio
Vincent D???Onoforio brought himself to weigh 280 pounds for his role of obese Private Leonard Gomer Pyle in Full Metal Jacket. He stupendously gained 70 pounds for this flick. The same year that Full Metal Jacket came out, Adventures in Babysitting was also released, and it???s unbelievable to see how significantly different he looks in both the films.
1. Christian Bale
One couldn???t imagine that the incredibly ripped ???American Psycho??? could look so dangerously skeletal four years later in The Machinist. Christian Bale definitely deserves the top position on the list, for his was the most unbelievable body transformation. He dropped about 60 pounds to play the insomniac factory worker. To justify with the character of Trevor Reznik, Bale dedicatedly followed a strict diet. One can of tuna and one apple was what he had every day.
Before The Machinist, Bale muscled up purely for the part of Patrick Bateman despite being a non-workout person. Then he stunned the audiences going extremely skeletal for The Machinist and then bulked up yet again, gaining 100 pounds in just a year for Batman Begins.
