Trigger Warning: The following article contains language that depicts addiction and eating disorders.
Some stars will literally starve for their art. A number of movie stars have gone on extreme diets in order to lose weight for roles in which their character is ill, addicted, on hunger strike, or some such condition tom hanksstranded on a deserted island in 2000’s Castaway.
The discipline and physical exertion required for actors to be willing to go to such extremes is often rewarded with awards. Both Matthew McConaughey And Jared Leto won an Oscar in 2013 for Dallas Buyers Club, where they played dying AIDS patients. Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for Joker in 2020 after losing 52 pounds for the role, although he said he went “crazy” from starvation.
Keep scrolling to see which stars have lost extreme weight for movie roles.
1 out of 10
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Christian Bale
For 2004’s The Machinist, Christian lost a whopping 30 pounds and appeared almost skeletal in the film. He cut weight again on 2010’s The Fighter to play drug addict and former boxer Dicky Eklund, who lost 30 pounds. The role earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in February 2011.
2 out of 10
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Cillian Murphy
The Irish actor refused to reveal the exact amount of weight he lost for playing the father of the atomic bomb in 2023’s ‘Oppenheimer’ but co-star Emily Blunt shared that he got his gaunt appearance from eating just one almond a day.
Cillian told the New York Times in May, “I love playing with my body, and Oppenheimer had a very distinct physique and silhouette that I wanted to get right.” We worked with the costume and tailoring; he was very slim, almost emaciated, lived on martinis and cigarettes.”
3 out of 10
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Natalie Portman
For the role of a troubled ballerina in 2011’s Black Swan, Natalie shed 20 pounds from her already lean frame by eating carrots and almonds while rehearsing eight hours a day. “There were some nights where I thought I was going to literally die,” she told Entertainment Weekly. The suffering paid off as Natalie won an Oscar for Best Actress for the role.
4 out of 10
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Mila Kunis
Not only did Mila play Natalie’s rival in Black Swan, she lost 20 pounds for the role. “I used to be a smoker. So I smoked a lot of cigarettes and restricted my calorie intake. It was a daily diet of 1,200 calories or less. I would recommend an average of 1,200 calories per day. That’s awful. Then I smoked. I don’t support that in any way. Also, I’m not a smoker; Smoking is disgusting,” she revealed Howard Stern about how she lost weight.
5 out of 10
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Joaquin Phoenix
The actor lost 52 pounds for the role of Arthur Fleck in ‘Joker,’ according to the writer and director, in 2019 Todd Phillips wanted the character to “look hungry and unhealthy”.
“As it turns out, when you lose that much weight in that time, it affects the psyche and it really starts to drive you crazy,” he said of his extreme weight loss, speaking at the Venice Film Festival.
6 out of 10
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Matthew McConaughey
For 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew lost 50 pounds to play AIDS patient Ron Woodroof. “It was my responsibility. If I look like I do now and play Dallas Buyers Club’s Ron Woodroof, you’re out of the movie in the first frame,” he told the podcaster Joe Rogan in 2020, he revealed he had eaten nothing but fish, egg whites and tapioca pudding. The role changed Matthew’s career and he was rewarded with an Oscar for Best Actor.
7 out of 10
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Jared Leto
Matthew’s co-star Jared lost nearly 40 pounds from his already slim frame to play Rayon, the HIV-positive transgender woman who becomes Ron’s business partner in the film. He made it to 114 for not eating, but he also won an Oscar and Best Supporting Actor for Dallas Buyers Club.
8 out of 10
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Anne Hathaway
For the role of struggling mother and sex worker Fantine in Les Misérables, Anne not only lost her hair when her character had to sell it, she also lost 25 pounds in two weeks. Anne revealed in a 2012 interview that she only ate two thin squares of dried oatmeal paste a day. However, she dreamed a dream and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2013.
9 out of 10
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tom hanks
The actor has both lost and gained tremendous weight over the years for film roles. For the role of a dying HIV patient in 1993’s “Philadelphia,” Tom lost 35 pounds and went on to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2000’s Castaway, he outdid himself by losing 50 pounds to play a businessman stranded for years on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean after surviving a plane crash.
10 out of 10
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Michelle Pfeiffer
For her iconic role as Elvira Hancock in 1983’s Scarface, Michelle lost weight during filming to accommodate her character’s increasing cocaine addiction.
“I was playing a cocaine addict, so that was part of the physicality of the role that you have to consider,” she said during a 2018 panel discussion marking the film’s 35th anniversary. “You know, the movie was just supposed to be a threesome or four months of shooting. I tried to time it so that I got thinner and emaciated as the film progressed.
“The problem is that it ended up taking six months. In the end I was starving. The one scene at the end of the movie where I was skinny was always next week, then next week, [and so on]. I literally had crew members bring me bagels because they were worried about how skinny I was getting. I subsisted on tomato soup and Marlboro,” she added.
Visit the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders (ANAD) website or call their hotline at (888)-375-7767 for help. If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder
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