Celebrities Who Lost Extreme Weight for Movie Roles: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and More

Christian Bale

For 2004’s The Machinist, Christian lost a whopping 60 pounds, appearing near skeletal in the film. He cut weight again for 2010’s The Fighter to play drug addict and former boxer Dicky Eklund, losing 30 pounds. The role won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in February 2011.

Cillian Murphy

The Irish actor refused to reveal the exact amount of weight he lost to play the father of the atomic bomb in 2023’s Oppenheimer, but costar Emily Blunt shared that he achieved his gaunt look by eating only one almond a day.

Cillian told The New York Times in May, “I love acting with my body, and Oppenheimer had a very distinct physicality and silhouette, which I wanted to get right.” He added, “I had to lose quite a bit of weight, and we worked with the costume and tailoring; he was very slim, almost emaciated, existed on martinis and cigarettes.”

Natalie Portman

For playing a troubled ballerina in 2011’s Black Swan, Natalie shed 20 pounds from her already slender frame by eating carrots and almonds while spending eight hours per day rehearsing. “There were some nights that I thought I literally was going to die,” she told Entertainment Weekly. The suffering paid off as Natalie took home a Best Actress Oscar for the role.

Mila Kunis

Not only did Mila play Natalie’s rival in Black Swan, she too lost 20 pounds for her role. “I used to be a smoker. Therefore, I smoked many cigarettes and restricted my caloric intake. It was a daily diet of 1,200 calories or fewer. I would suggest 1,200 calories each day on average. It is terrible. I then smoked. I do not support this in any way. Also, I’m not a smoker; smoking is disgusting,” she revealed to Howard Stern about how she lost the weight.

Joaquin Phoenix

The actor infamously dropped 52 pounds to play Arthur Fleck in 2019’s Joker after writer and director Todd Phillips wanted the character to “look hungry and unhealthy.”

“As it turns out, that impacts your psychology, and you really start to go mad when you lose that much weight in that amount of time,” he said of his extreme weight loss while speaking at the Venice Film Festival.

Matthew McConaughey

For 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew shed 50 pounds to play AIDS patient Ron Woodroof. “It was my responsibility. If I looked how I look now and played Ron Woodroof from Dallas Buyers Club, you are out of the movie the first frame,” he told podcaster Joe Rogan in 2020, revealing he ate nothing but fish, egg whites and tapioca pudding. The role turned Matthew’s career around and he was rewarded with a Best Actor Oscar.

Jared Leto

Matthew’s costar 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 movie. He got down to 114 by simply not eating, but he too won an Oscar, taking home Best Supporting Actor for Dallas Buyers Club.

Anne Hathaway

To play struggling mother and sex worker Fantine in Les Misérables, Anne not only lost her hair as her character had to sell it, she also dropped 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 took home the 2013 Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Tom Hanks

The actor has both lost and gained tremendous amounts of weight over the years for movie roles. To play a dying HIV patient in 1993’s Philadelphia, Tom dropped 35 pounds and went on to win a Best Actor Oscar. He outdid himself for 2000’s Castaway, losing 50 pounds to play a businessman stranded for years on a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean after surviving a plane crash.

Michelle Pfeiffer

For her iconic role as Elvira Hancock in 1983’s Scarface, Michelle lost weight throughout the movie shoot to match her character’s increasing cocaine addiction.

“I was playing a cocaine addict, so that was part of the physicality of the part, which you have to consider,” she during a 2018 panel celebrating the movie’s 35th anniversary. “You know, the movie was only supposed to be a three or four-month shoot. I tried to time it so that as the movie went on, I became thinner and thinner, and more emaciated.”

“The problem is, it ended up going six months. I was starving by the end. The one scene, the end of the film, where I was thinnest, it was always next week, then next week, [and so on]. I literally had members of the crew bringing me bagels because they were worried about how thin I was getting. I was living on tomato soup and Marlboros,” she added.

ng disorder, visit the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders (ANAD) website or call their hotline at (888)-375-7767 to get help.If you or someone you know struggles with an eati