Christian Bale remains the undisputed king of physical makeovers for his roles

Aug 11, 2012 13:41 GMT  ·  By
Tom Hardy is anarchist villain Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises”
12 photos
   Tom Hardy is anarchist villain Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises”

Since Chris Nolan's most recent film, the third and final installment in the Batman franchise, “The Dark Knight Rises,” made the conversation on physical transformations for movie roles a hot topic again, we thought now's the best time to have a look back.

Here is a list of the top 10 most impressive transformations underwent by actors for their roles, which, in some cases, helped them land much coveted awards or, in the worst case, no awards but the undying admiration and respect of fans.

As WeGotThisCovered (which also gets credit for comprising this list) points out, sometimes, one of the most remarkable things about a film can be the effort that goes into building a character from the ground up, months before shooting even begins.

Besides makeup and costumes, which have and will always help with making a character more believable, actors also put themselves through a lot to either bulk up, gain weight or go down to the smallest size possible.

They should also be commended for this, for this dedication they show, and not just for their work in front of the camera.

The “list” is in no particular order, except for the last entry, which takes the top spot.

And, since we've been talking before about “The Dark Knight Rises,” we'll start with the hottest actor of the moment, handsome Brit Tom Hardy.

Audiences may know him as “The Forger” Eames in “Inception,” but Hardy took the world by surprise with his critically acclaimed role in “Bronson” some time before that.

For that particular role, he packed on a lot of muscle in almost record time, to be able to portray one of the cruelest and most famous inmates in the British penitentiary system.

“Warrior” showed him bulked up again to play an Army vet who turns to MMA fighting again to win the top prize, but he bounced back to his slender self for the rom-com “This Means War.”

In TDKR, Hardy is bigger and more imposing than ever, admitting in an interview taken months before he started shooting as Bane that he'd basically have to sleep in the gym to get in perfect shape. Mission accomplished.

Darren Aronofsky's “Black Swan” left all competition in the dust when it came out in 2010, earning leading lady Natalie Portman an Oscar for Best Actress and supporting star Mila Kunis lots of critical praise for successfully stepping out of rom-com territory.

The film – and the two leading ladies – also won praise for the dedication they showed to become ballerinas for the film.

Months before it went into production, the twosome was dieting, working out and dancing to an extreme measure, which helped them get the slender, frail but ironically strong bodies ballerinas are known for.

Both Natalie and Mila spoke about what a difficult time that was, but it was only Mila who would admit that putting her body under such strain nearly ruined her.

Another shocking transformation, perhaps even more shocking than Mila and Natalie's weight loss, came in 2003, with the Oscar-winning drama “Monster.”

Charlize Theron, inarguably one of the most beautiful and stylish stars of the moment, completely transformed herself to play a gay serial killer, to the point where some even doubted that it was her in the film.

She packed on weight and “let herself go,” as she once put it, in terms of working out. She also had prosthetics and makeup to make her a far cry from her glamorous, red carpet, fabulous self.

In the end, her transformation was so impressive that, after winning an Oscar for the role, people would sneer online that, in order to nab that Academy Award, all you have to do was agree to uglify yourself. Obviously, her win had more to do with her performance than her willingness to gain weight, but we'll just assume the joke didn't come from meanness.

In his attempt to prove to the world that his acting dreams are more than a rapper's desire to end boredom, 50 Cent too agreed to go all Method and lose a lot of weight for a movie role.

For a man as ripped and big as him, the transformation was the more shocking.

In “All Things Fall Apart,” the rapper plays a football player that's diagnosed with cancer just as his career is about to really kick off. 50 (Curtis Jackson by his real name) lost the weight while shooting.

He once said he'd run for 3 straight hours a day on the treadmill whilst on a very strict, low-calorie diet to lose the weight and get that sickly look as that of a cancer patient.

The film didn't really impress fans or critics but, if anything, Fiddy showed them that he's as serious about acting as any other professional.

Russell Crowe became a household name with “Gladiator”: after that movie came out, he was the man every director wanted to work with. In “Body of Lies,” he's practically unrecognizable because of how much weight he gained specifically for the part.

Crowe put himself on a “diet” of cupcakes and cheeseburgers to pack on the pounds to play a jaded CIA agent. As expected, he had fun while doing this, as he admitted more than once – but the fun stopped when it came to bouncing back in shape.

The actor took 2 whole years to shed the bulk and get back in shape.

Robert de Niro also put himself through hell to make as convincing a character as possible in the cult classic “Raging Bull.” With this role, he practically became the father of Method acting, at least as far as physical transformations are concerned.

“It showed what dedication can do to a human body, and what incredible results it can have on a performance,” WGTC writes.

“The film had to be shot in two parts to show the stark contrast between the lean, cut boxer, and the pudgy older Jake La Motta. During the break in filming De Niro gained 60 pounds [27.2 kg] to beef up for the older La Motta. His diet was mostly Italian food. And a lot of it. How fitting,” adds the same media outlet.

Martin Scorsese once admitted that the scenes with the fat de Niro had to be shot with fewer takes because the actor was under a lot of strain and could not cope with too long working hours.

Jared Leto played a drug addict in the haunting and superb “Requiem for a Dream” but he was double that size in the critically panned “Chapter 27.”

To get the body of killer Mark David Chapman, Leto ate a lot of microwave food and junk food, pizza mostly.

He admitted the experience was anything but fun because he was not accustomed to eating like this and there were days when he literally had to force feed himself to the point of throwing up.

It took him over a year to get back in shape and, to this day, he says, he still feels as if his body never recovered. What's even worse, the film didn't get the reception worthy of such an impressive feat as Leto pulled for it.

Tom Hanks moved audiences to tears with his role in “Cast Away,” the story of a man marooned on a desert island, whose every single day is one in which he fights to survive.

Filming began with Hanks looking normal (what we understand by “normal” weight, not what Hollywood does) and ended with him being literally skin and bones, as one would imagine a man living on a deserted island should be.

“Following the Raging Bull model, the filming was split into two parts with a one year break in between in order for Hanks to make his drastic transformation. Except, Hanks pulled a reverse De Niro and instead, shed weight. Over the course of four months Hanks lost an incredible 55 pounds[24.9 kg],” WGTC says.

When “Good Will Hunting” came out, critics rushed to say that Matt Damon was probably the most promising actor of his generation. He surely did not disappoint them – or the fans that supported him from day 1.

He'd already showed early signs of his dedication to the art of filmmaking when, in the 1996 “Courage Under Fire,” he lost a lot of weight to play a heroin addict.

He admitted in a later interview that he'd nearly taken his “diet” to the point where he'd almost made himself sick, saying he was lucky the people around him warned him of the damage he could do if he didn't stop.

Years later, in 2009, Damon was puffier than he'd ever been, in “The Informant,” after sticking on a diet of burgers, pizza and other junk food. Damon said the lack of exercise nearly “got him.”

Last but not least, we get to our number 1 when it comes to physical transformations for movie roles: Christian Bale.

With a career that's packed with box office hits and critical successes, Bale has earned for himself a reputation as one of the most dedicated, consummate professionals in the branch.

Sure, sometimes his bad temper gets him a few headlines he could very well do without but, in the end, it's his superb body of work and his body that guarantee him a safe spot in the hearts of the audiences.

Clearly, keeping track of the many times he'd transformed himself for a role could prove a very laborious work: the man always changes. He's a living legend in this respect.

However, honorable mentions go to “American Psycho,” “The Machinist,” “Batman Begins,” “The Fighter” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” in this particular chronological order.

As a bonus, at the end of the article is another video, of Christian Bale on the set of “The Machinist.” He was so exhausted from starvation that he'd hardly move in between takes to conserve energy.

*Honorable mention: Bumblebee from “Transformers.” From Goldbug, the Volkswagen Bug in the comics, Sam's yellow car / Autobot transformed into an awesome Chevrolet Camaro in Michael Bay's movies.

Bay gets credit for this incredible tribute he paid to the Bug in a scene in the first film, which shows Sam coming across Bumblebee – see the photo attached.

So there you have it. For suggestions, don't be shy to drop us a line in the comments section below: we're positive we've left some of your favorites out, so let us hear it.

Photo Gallery (12 Images)

Tom Hardy is anarchist villain Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises”
Tom Hardy goes from fit to huge to play Bane, Batman's most dangerous rival everMila Kunis admitted to going through hell to lose weight to play a professional ballerina in “Black Swan”
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