Celebrity Transformations

[Prairie Dog]

Jared Leto gained over 60 pounds to play the role of Mark Chapman for the film, "Chapter 27".
By the middle of the shoot he was in a wheel chair because of health related problems.

Christian Bale lost 63 pounds for his role in "The Machinist".

Eric Bana gained over 50 pounds for his role in "Chopper".

Renee Zellweger gained more than a few pounds for the two "Bridget Jones" films.

Those are just four examples of modern-era actors that underwent remarkable transformations for a specific role. Perhaps we can springboard this into a discussion of other actors, preferably those of the golden-age that underwent similar transformations just for a role.

Here's a more detailed account of the actor' Jared Letos's health problems from a recent interview. Jared, revealed gaining 60lbs to play Chapman left him unable to walk.
He said: "My body was in shock from the amount of weight I gained. "I don't know if it was gout - but I had a definite problem with my feet. I couldn't walk for long distances. I had a wheelchair because it was so painful."

The 36-year-old star insists the weight gain was essential to the role and was shocked by people's reactions to his enlarged body. Jared explained: "It was important to make that transformation. It changed everything about who I was - the way I walked, talked, how I felt about myself and the way people treated me. It was interesting to see what people thought - some obviously thought I'd let myself go."

The star insists he will never resort to such drastic measures for a movie role in the future because his body still hasn't recovered. Jared added: "I'd never do it again, it definitely gave me some problems. "It took about a year to feel semi-normal. I don't know if I'll ever be back to the place I was physically."


Was the gain worth all the pain?

 

[K.D. Lightner]

In the past, Robert Deniro put on weight to play Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull. He also plucked hair out of his head to play Al Capone in The Untouchables . And he gained weight for that role, too.

Bette Davis would go to great lengths to "uglify" herself for some of her movies, was one of the few actresses in the Golden Age not afraid to play down her looks to create a character.

Hands down, the greatest shape shifter was Lon Chaney, who would create and wear the weirdest things for his many roles. "The Man of a Thousand Faces" wore egg membrane in his eye to give himself a blind eye in Hunchback of Notre Dame, he stuck, I believe, a bobby pin up into his nose when he played in Phantom of the Opera, had his legs tied painfully back to play a legless man in one movie. He actually damaged his body doing some those things to himself.

I may think of others, but these actors come to mind.

karol

 

[Prairie Dog]

Bette Davis would go to great lengths to "uglify" herself for some of her movies, was one of the few actresses in the Golden Age not afraid to play down her looks to create a character.

That's true. I think she down-played her looks in most of her films. Her performances were so powerful and convincing that it's hard to realize she was ever this beautiful.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

We gals don't get many good-looking actors to look at as it is. Couldn't the producers find an actor who's already pleasingly plump or scrawny to use makeup to uglify his cute self? And Renee looks much much much better with the added pounds.
My mom was just saying that Philip Seymour Hoffman is so good at these chameleon roles.
I remember hearing a lecture about the pain the brilliant Lon Chaney put himself through for a role. One of my favorites of all time.

 

[The Wolf]

I think it has gotten out of control. Dennis Quaid was said to get "manorexia" after losing wait to be in the Wyatt Earp movie. I appreciate devotion to the craft but there is a point where make-up and wardrobe help with the look of the character then you act the rest of it.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Jovan]

Jared Leto was pretty dumb to do that, IMO. He looks pretty ectomorphic from what I can see. Our body types simply cannot handle putting on that many pounds in body fat in that short amount of time. No s*** he's not okay! If he's not careful he could have a stroke or heart attack from all the crap he's put in his system.

Should I ever be called to play such a role, just hand me the fat suit please.

 

[GeniusInTheLamp]

Of course, drastic weight shifts are nothing new. Laird Cregar went on a crash diet in order to land more conventional roles. It goes without saying that the diet put a premature - and permanent - end to Cregar's acting career.

 

[Doh!]

We gals don't get many good-looking actors to look at as it is. Couldn't the producers find an actor who's already pleasingly plump or scrawny to use makeup to uglify his cute self? And Renee looks much much much better with the added pounds.
My mom was just saying that Philip Seymour Hoffman is so good at these chameleon roles.
I remember hearing a lecture about the pain the brilliant Lon Chaney put himself through for a role. One of my favorites of all time.

I couldn't agree more about Renee Zellweger. She's looking scary thin these days. And it's pretty bad when you can count every tendon in her face.

 

[Edward]

Morgan Spurlock could have told him about the leath risks of rapid weight gain before that! I agree that Rene Zellwegger was much more attractive at her Bridget Jones weight. She was still well under the average size for a lady nowadays - here in the UK, the average is a UK16. RZ went to a UK12 for the first Bridget, then a UK10 (she refused to put on as much weight again) for the sequel. As a fan of the book, I found it amusingly ironic that she complained so bitterly as she is reported to have done about this weight gain when she wa even then so slim, bearing in mind that Bridget herself was equally skinny and obssessed with the notion that she might be "fat." Me, I'd love to lose weight for a role if I was in that position, but I'd be terrified to put it on in case I couldn't shift it later.

Now, here's a thing....... why is it that whenever Hollywood wants someone of a larger build in a film, for the most part they pick some slender star and make him / her bulk up dangerously quickly - rather than hiring an equally talented larger framed actor to begin with? Isn't it ironic that the thin-fixation of the cult of celebrity leads to this sort of thing happening?

 

[alexandra]

Part of the problem is that being fat, especially a fat woman, in Hollywood is worse than Leprosy. If you have a woman who has to be fat in a movie and you get a person who is slim and has to fatten up, then it's like "Well she's not actually that fat in real life, so it's okay" but if you have a fat chick who, when the movie it over, is still a fat chick...

well lets just say it's not good for business.

 

[Lady Day]

Its not that they gained the weight, but how and how quickly. The quicker you gain it, generally the easier it is to get off. So if a thin person puts it on in 6 months, they can generally take it off in about a year.

If they gain it in a 'healthy' way, then there are generally less shocks to the body as well. But if its fast food gain, youre bound to have health issues. I feel no pain for Leto, only for the gifted but fatter actor who got passed up for the one only role they would have gotten all because they were the ideal body for it.

These movies become more about the actor changing their bodies than their talent or even the film itself.

If a fat person is so interesting to have a movie made about them, Id rather see the fat person. Someone I can relate to

LD

 

[Jovan]

I have to agree with the last two posts.

 

[Tomasso]

 

[K.D. Lightner]

It was not so many years ago when famous white actors and actresses would transform themselves to play people of other races -- and, while, as a former actress, I know that can be a wonderful experience and challenge, I know also that it deprived people of other races a chance to perform in movies and onstage.

In old Hollywood, you had Katherine Hepburn and Luise Rainier playing Chinese women (the latter won an Oscar for The Good Earth), Rock Hudson and Jeff Chandler playing Native American Indians, Lawrence Olivier doing Othello as a black man. And many others come to mind.

There are instances in today's movies in which actors dress in drag to portray women, i.e., John Travolta in Hairspray, or they portray men who are dressed in drag to hide their real identities: Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot comes to mind, as well as Dutstin Hoffman in Tootsie and Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire.

And occasionally, there will be a gal playing a guy, i.e. Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously, and Meryl Streep playing the rabbi in Angels in America, or a gal portraying a gal disguised as a guy, i.e. Hillary Swank in Boys Don't Cry.

Come to think of it, Linda Hunt not only portrayed a small statured man in the film, she was also portraying an Indonesian, I believe.


karol

 

[Lady Day]

There are instances in today's movies in which actors dress in drag to portray women, i.e., John Travolta in Hairspray, or they portray men who are dressed in drag to hide their real identities: Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot comes to mind, as well as Dutstin Hoffman in Tootsie and Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire.

Those arnt really change, but an architype of the character. With hiarspray, it was always a drag character playing a mom (as was in the original movie), with Mrs. Doubtfire, it was suppose to be a man dressed as a woman playing a woman. Same with Hoffman. As far as people playing different races, the actual changing of their physical stature didnt happen. No one got plastic sergery to look more 'Asian' for a role. Or changed their skin outside of make up to look more 'black'

I think the instance being described is when a character physically changed their own body to preform a role.

LD

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I just remembered another famous weight loss: Shelley Winters actually shed weight during the filming of The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). She played Mrs. Van Daan, one of eight people who went into hiding in the secret annex to escape the Nazi deathcamps.

The filming must have been done in chronological order, like the play, so that Winters could shed pounds as the story progressed.

She won an Oscar for the role and donated it to the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam.

karol

 

[K.D. Lightner]

How could I have forgotten? Not too many years ago, Tom Hanks was in a movie called Caste Away, where his character was stranded on a tropical island for 4 years.

He started the movie as a slightly pudgy man, by the end of the film, he was trimmed down significantly, as one would living on a diet of fish and coconuts. I almost didn't recognize him when the story skipped to four years later. He was slender, tan and bearded.

karol

 

[Bugsy]

Also don't forget the Tom Hanks lost a good deal for Philadelphia.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Jeff Bridges stunned America on Thursday night by donning a long black wig for his appearance on late night TV show The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson - and then removing it to reveal a bald pate. He looked virtually unrecognisable as he shuffled onto Ferguson's show with an unkempt wig and a bushy grey beard, prompting the host to quip, "Have you had your hair cut recently, Jeff?" The actor then whipped off his wig and revealed he's gone bald for his new film in upcoming action film Iron Man.

Bridges, who plays Obadiah Stane in the highly-anticipated new movie, admited he wasn't told to shave his head for the film, but felt his character would look great with no hair - and a long grey beard. He says, "I didn't have to be bald but I kind of have always wanted to be bald. My wife likes it."

 

[Jovan]

Wow. I did not recognise him at all at first... he really looks like someone you don't want to mess with (as if you'd want to in the first place!).

I did of course recognise the always lovely Zooey Deschanel.