Christian Bale For The Machinist
Christian Bale is the master of becoming immersed in his roles. The weight fluctuation he has had in the last 10 years is staggering. He has weighed as much as much as 230 and as little as 121. That’s right, 121 pounds.
Bale dropped a whopping 63 pounds for his role as the insomniac factory worker in the 2004 drama The Machinist. How did he lose the weight? Through a strict diet of 275 calories a day, which he got by eating a can of tuna or an apple. That’s it.
The 6 foot actor looked barely alive at 121 pounds. He was a mere ghost of his former ripped American Psycho physique. After the film, Bale had to put on nearly 100 pounds in 5 months for Batman Begins. After all, a skinny Batman would be like a skinny Santa. Thankfully, he put on that weight and more, getting all the way up to 230 pounds, before actually dropping weight to play the caped crusader.
At this point, Bale had a iconic franchise character to play, for what was certainly going to be multiple movies. It would make sense that this would be the time in his career where he could adopt a normal diet and maintain his weight for a few years. Turns out that would have been much too boring for Bale though, as he drastically dropped weight again (though not to Machinist levels) for his role as crack addicted Dickie Eklund in The Fighter. The academy appreciated the work he put in and his brilliant performance won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
But wait! Bruce Wayne was never on crack, and he certainly would have no chance of standing up to Bane looking like Eklund, so the weight came back on again for The Dark Knight Rises. Now that is method acting at its finest.
So there you have it, ten actors who have gone through remarkable transformations. What do you think, did we miss anyone?
Also, if you’re interested in reading more, check out Beefing Up Part 2: Ten More Actors Who Underwent Remarkable Physical Transformations For Their Roles.