Due to its intangible technicality, acting seems like a natural and easy profession to the untrained eye. But in totality, the craft possesses a string of disciplines, ranging from the embodiment of psychosomatic behaviors to the altering of physical form, and everything in between. When an actor dives deep within the depths of their own extremes, a character is born, and a performance is given. This is a rare happening that’s normally undertaken only by a sheer master, as it requires years of investment and dedication. This odyssey into one’s psyche, aided by a drastic physical transformation, is what makes acting seem like being, with the rest merely scratching the surface of the craft.
10 Tom Hanks – Cast Away (2000)
Being stranded on an island, left alone to fend for yourself, has mental and physical implications beyond what the average Joe can fathom. Realizing this, Tom Hanks shed around 55 pounds for his portrayal of deserted FedEx employee Chuck Noland, going on a total dietary revolution to physically and mentally gain insight into what a survivor’s life might look like. Hanks’ drastic transformation, coupled with his honest performance, gave birth to a legendary character in a heartwarming film that, to this day, can be found strolling within the bylines of our memory.
9 Natalie Portman – Black Swan (2010)
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Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan played out as an homage to Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet, Swan Lake. Along with tipping his hat to one of the greats, Aronofsky’s film also threw light and some shade at the virtue of greatness and the cost it comes at. Propagating this narrative through his vessel in Natalie Portman’s young ballerina, Nina Sayers, the actress went through an internal and external transformation to create a depth of madness that comes with striving for perfection.
Owing to the fact that ballerinas are notoriously strict about their diet and rehearsal regimen, Portman dropped 20 pounds, reducing herself to a skeletal ballet dancer and haunting our screens forever.
8 Beyoncé – Dreamgirls (2006)
Known for her curvy physique and breathtaking beauty, Beyoncé dropped 20 pounds to land the role of a singer in Bill Condon’s musical-drama. The film’s loosely based on the real-life trio, The Supremes, who operated in the ’60s and charts their rise to fame. Portraying a musical icon from a bygone era isn’t as easy as it sounds, as it doesn’t just revolve around losing weight and looking like them. Rather, it’s more about getting perfecting their mechanisms and nuances, which Beyoncé and co-stars Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose seemed to have nailed accurately.
7 50 Cent – All Things Fall Apart (2011)
When you think about 50 Cent, a shirtless man hanging upside down, rapping to the beat of “In Da Club” comes to mind. Replacing that ripped man with a terminally ill cancer patient is a tough ask, but 50 Cent, aka Curtis Jackson, pulls out all the stops and delivers. After having lost 50 pounds over a nine-week period, the American rapper shocked a lot of fans with his commitment to craft, which may have jeopardized his health, but solidified his dedication as an actor.
6 Mark Wahlberg – Father Stu (2022)
Mark Wahlberg’s dedication to health and fitness is no secret, with the actor maintaining an enviable physique up into his 50s. Father Stu momentarily changed that, subtracting the fitness aspect from Wahlberg’s life and seeing him indulge in the comfort of a dad-bod. Building up to his role as boxer-turned-priest, Wahlberg consumed up to eight meals a day, culminating into 11,000 calories and 13kg.
5 Ben Kingsley – Gandhi (1982)
For a man who preached non-violence and rid India of its colonial past, Gandhi was small and frail. A glaring testament to the adage that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, Gandhi’s small frame was no reflection of his internal resolve.
A pious figure in the Indian landscape, for Attenborough, casting Gandhi was of penultimate importance, seeing him make an effort for almost two decades to find the right actor. When Ben Kingsley made the cut, the actor went the whole hard yards to step into the shoes of the Indian freedom fighter by giving up meat and living on a frugal diet to actualize Gandhi’s character.
4 Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
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Jean-Marc Vallée’s AIDS drama saw a couple of unreal transformations, with Jared Leto‘s Rayon taking the cake. To play the part of a trans AIDS patient, Leto lost about 30 pounds, raising quite a few eyebrows on set, as he looked terminally ill when he arrived on set. The actor layered his transformation with an understanding of the disease along with the impact that drugs have on it, giving birth to Rayon’s character emotionally and physically.
3 Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler (2014)
While many physical transformations revolve around losing or gaining weight, Jake Gyllenhaal’s portrayal of narcissistic reporter Lou Bloom takes things up a notch. Having lost around 30 pounds for the role, Gyllenhaal’s transformation isn’t just limited to the physical realm, but also seeps into his demeanor and mannerisms. Apart from the usual shrinking in size and scale, Gyllenhaal’s transformation is punctuated by eerie, hollow, sunken eyes, along with an insatiable hunger for all things shady and wrong.
2 Joaquin Phoenix – Joker (2019)
Much like his predecessor, Joaquin Phoenix‘s starvation campaign made him shed 52 pounds, while having many psychological implications for his personality. This self sabotage seemed to align with the Joker’s moral compass, but Phoenix soon realized that it’s not a sustainable way to live. Phoenix’s transformation is another classic example of how the physical side of things enmeshes with the mental side, creating an ecosystem of subterfuge and chaos.
1 Christian Bale – Vice (2018)
Arguably one of the most physically transformative actors of our times, Christian Bale has shape-shifted his way into some iconic roles like The Machinist, Batman Begins, and Vice. In order to portray an aging Dick Cheney in his biopic, Bale made steady progress on the other end of the scale by gaining 18 kg for his role as the former US Vice President.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
