14 DAY TRIAL // One of the hotties the second installment of “The Twilight Saga” introduced was Alex Meraz, who plays Paul of the Wolf Pack. Known for his martial arts skills and work as a model, Meraz also caused quite a stir with his part on “New Moon” because he could only be rivaled by Taylor Lautner in terms of muscle definition and excellent condition. All that is now gone, AceShowbiz says.
As per the e-zine, Meraz has moved on from “Twilight” (though he will still appear in the remaining films, of course) by taking up another project, a film where he plays a surfer who gets into some drug-related complications. Because he considered he was too heavy to make for a believable surfer, the star decided to lose all the muscle mass he’d gained for the “Twilight” films, which means he lost about one quarter of his bodyweight.
“‘The Twilight Saga’s New Moon’ star Alex Meraz has dropped a scary 45 pounds (20.4 kilograms) to play a surfer wrongly convicted of smuggling drugs into Peru. The actor, who played wolfman Paul in the ‘Twilight’ sequel, is almost unrecognizable as Nicaragua in gritty new film ‘The City of Gardens.’ Meraz had to shed his musclebound look and lose almost a quarter of his bodyweight to play the surfer in director Camilo Vila’s new film, which is based on a real story,” AceShowbiz writes.
“The actor tells E! Online, ‘I didn’t want to look like a Ken doll, you know what I mean? It’s a Peruvian prison in the ‘80s, which is nothing like an American prison. There’s not much food. There are definitely no free weights to work out with. So I couldn’t have a gym body.’ Meraz stopped lifting weights, reduced his meal portions and even went on a juice diet while he was shooting. He adds, ‘I could see my heart beat through my chest’,” the e-zine further says.
And the challenges are just beginning for this ambitious actor, as he puts it himself. Now that he’s done shooting for “The City of Gardens,” he’s hard at work to pack some muscle mass again – and he has to do it before the first part of the final book “Breaking Dawn” goes into production this fall.