7 Significant Body Transformations For Movies

Body Transformations

Talk about commitment to a profession. Some would say what these guys did is flat out dumb. Take this quote for example:  All of Damon’s organs had been strained by his weight loss and it would take years for his metabolism to return to normal. And the good news? “The good news,” the doctor explained, “is that your heart didn’t shrink.”

But others would argue that these actors are just committed to their craft. Either way, it’s pretty impressive how these guys managed to transform their bodies to adjust to their characters for these movies.  Here are 7 significant body transformations in movies

Christian Bale in The Machinist

Body Transformations Body Transformations

63 pounds. That’s what it took for Bale to land the lead role in The Machinist. I mean he definitely wins the prize here. He was somewhere in the 120’s at 6 ft tall. His normal weight is between 185-195. Wow.

Robert Deniro in Raging Bull

Body Transformations

Let’s take it in reverse. “Give me that bag of chips!” Deniro put on an astounding 50 lbs to play the older Jake LaMotta. It’s amazing to see how ripped he is in the beginning and how chunky he gets towards the end.

Sylvester Stallone in Copland

Body Transformations Body Transformations

Stallone packed on 40 lbs for this one. And word is he didn’t even use steroids! Just good old fashioned ice cream. Way to go pal.

Ed Norton in American History X

Body Transformations Body Transformations

Has anyone ever seen Norton this jacked? I didn’t think so. He was a house in this flick. What I don’t understand is why he didn’t stay that way. If you look like that, why not stay looking ridiculously in shape? Anyone interested in the American X workout? Word is he did this in 3 months. Anyone seen my horse syringe?

Tom Hanks in Cast Away

Body Transformations Body Transformations

Hanks lost over 50 lbs to play the stranded ex Fed Ex Employee. Pretty impressive. Wilson! Give me a Hamburger! Wilson!

James Spader in Supernova

Body Transformations Body Transformations

People are probably wondering what the hell Supernova is anyway. I’ll tell you what it is. It’s Lou Diamond Phillips, Peter Facinelli and James Spader on a ship doing steroids. When the hell was James Spader EVER huge like this? This one blew me away.

Matt Damon in Courage Under Fire

Body Transformations

Damon lost 40 lbs for this role as a drugged up Gulf War Veteran. What’s notable is that he did this without the help of a nutritionist.

Similar Posts

75 Comments

  1. How about Vincent D’Onfrio in Full Metal Jacket…he gained 90 lbs to play Gomber Pyle which I believe is still the most an actor has gained for a role.

  2. You forgot the most important aspect of the Bale transformation. 2 months after shooting the Machinist, Bale started shooting a little movie call Batman Begins. He weighted around 240 lbs for the duration of the film. So to recap, he went from around 120 in the Machinist to 240 in give or take two month…

  3. Bale definitely wins, but going to second Vincent D’Onofrio here. Look at his filmography and realize that Full Metal Jacket and Adventures in Babysitting were released in the same year.

  4. To Ralph…………something sounded not right about Bale and 2 months going from 120lbs to 240lbs is both physically dangerous and impossible. Anyways as per Wikipedia……..”Still fresh from The Machinist, it became necessary for Bale to bulk up to match the powerful physique of Batman. He was given a deadline of six months to do this. Bale recalled it as far from a simple accomplishment: “…when it actually came to building muscle, I was useless. I couldn’t do one push up the first day. All of the muscles were gone, so I had a real tough time rebuilding all of that.”[24] With the help of a personal trainer, Bale succeeded in meeting the deadline, gaining a total of 100lbs (46kg) in six months. He went from about 130lbs to 230lbs.[30] He then discovered that he had actually gained more weight than the director desired, and dropped his weight to 190lbs by the time filming began.[31] (Bale is 6’1″ tall).”

  5. “Damon lost 40 lbs for this role as a drugged up Gulf War Veteran. What’s notable is that he did this without the help of a nutritionist.”

    Or a grocery budget.

  6. “With the help of a personal trainer, Bale succeeded in meeting the deadline, gaining a total of 100lbs (46kg) in six months”…. it sounds like steroids, it is IMPOSIBLE to gain 46 kg in 6 months by natural training form, it is 7,666 kg per month or 1,916666 kg per week, that is not posible without steroids

  7. What about Gary Oldman? He lost so much weight for Sid & Nancy that he had to be hospitalised, and thus had to GAIN weight to play the basically anorexic Sid Vicious

  8. How did Mickey Rouke get missed? He used to be both skinny and good looking but for “Sin City”, or even “The Westler” he was massive. Unlike when he played in “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” when he hid his chihuahua behind his back.

    Then there’s also Michael Biehn who for “Stiletto” got Built. Scary!

    Would love to see photos of these guys before and after side by side.

  9. wingtale: Rourke didn’t change his body for a movie, he went on steroids, went into prize fighting (whatever that is) and had plastic surgery done on his face. I can see why he is surprised that he’s managed to rebuild his acting career.

  10. Norton & Spader did nothing special in their supposed transformations.
    What Bale did for The Machinist was STUPID. Probably Damon too.
    A f’n movie role is not worth jeopardizing your health.

  11. Dennis Quaid for Wyatt Earp.

    Heard he damaged himself so much that he still suffers from it.

    And the movie blew chunks compared to Tombstone.

    What was he thinking?

    Val Kilmer just used a little red make-up around the eyes, coughed a lot, and it was the performance of a career.

    I mean really. what gets into their heads?

    That pic of Bale is frightening.

    And it’s not like he needed the money or anything.

    8 or 10 years off your life at the end for a fricking movie? And a bad one in Quaid’s case.

  12. what about De Niro’s transformation in Cape Fear?! He was like 55 when he blew everyone away as Max Cady in that film….granted his change in size in Raging Bulls is by far the most impressive, but he basicly got fat to make that movie, in Cape Fear he toned up to such a degree that he actually did crunches hanging upside down from a bar like in the film, name any other actor in their 50s that did that on film?

    Oh….and Bale in American Psycho, that is like a combination of Nortan from American History X and Brad Pitt from Fight Club, the shape he got in for that film blow Batman out of th water….

    But my real beef is the fact that De Niro’s transfermation in Cape Fear wasn’t on the list, the mere fact that it was over looked even in the other coments bugs me.

  13. Granted the guys that muscled up did not put the stress on their bodies like the ones who dropped weight to the point of starvation, unless these actors took the steroid route. When I saw “Supernova” years ago I almost did not recognize James Spader because of the unbelievable amount of upper body muscle he packed on. His biceps looked like something out or a muscle builder competition.

  14. STALLONE IS A NOTORIOUS PROPONENT OF “chemical-enhancement”. steroids and human growth hormone my friend. its actually very very very very popular with hollywood types. Just as much as with athletes. Think about it, (no testing, high demands) it makes sense. Arnold, and ALL those body building types were on the junk. And they make no bones about it, when their around their contemporaries. ENIGMA

  15. Yeah man, Jared Leto definately deserves to be on here. He gained like, 67 pounds for his role in Chapter 27. Then he lost it all really fast and looked even skinnier than he was before. Amazing. But like Bale, he said it had serious adverse effects on his health.

  16. No love for the ladies! Angela Bassett took it all the way to play Tina Turner in “What’s Love got to Do With It?” – apparently she went with Tina’s fitness regimen to get quite cut.

  17. if ya include tv programmes what about jamie Bamber as Lee “Apollo” Adama in bsg season 3 when he put on loads of weight and within weeks was ripped again

  18. Tom Hardy in Bronson. Dude packed on 30 pounds of muscle—twice—over four years. He was yoked, but said his gf didn’t like it. Should’ve dumped that bitch. The tail he could’ve pulled in looking like he did would’ve been EPIC.

  19. Bale must take the cake. De Niro going from a heavyweight champ to a fat dude is impressive but eating like an idiot isn’t that hard. Bale however, he went from a Christian Missionary commercial to the goddamn Batman in 6 months. That’s astonishing, apparently Bale has epic genetics which allows him to build so much faster.

  20. Bale lost his weight for the machanist. Next he did Batman Begins, and then Rescue Dawn in which he loses his weight as the movie progresses

  21. Pretty great article. I just stumbled upon your site and wanted to point out that I’ve really enjoyed reading your web-site articles. I’ll be opting-in to your feed and I hope you publish another post again shortly!

  22. to expand with Bale (movies he’s done in sequence)

    The Machinist- deathly skinny
    Batman Begins- “big as a bear”
    Rescue Dawn- POW skinny
    The Dark Knight– super buffed
    The Fighter– drug addict skinny

    … noticing a trend?

    one more to add: Keanu Reeves

    Little Buddha– almost as skinny as Bale in Machinist
    Speed– big beefy cop

    time difference between Buddha and Speed: 3-6 months.

  23. Ryan Reynolds in Blade Trinity – huge (put on 25 lbs of muscle)
    Will Smith in Ali – he said it hurt to have so much muscle (220 lbs of lean, mean)
    Matthew McConaughey in Reign of Fire – someone mentioned this but he went from surfer slim to a monster

  24. Jake Gyllenhal for Price of Persia anyone? When I heard the casting I thought someone had smoked a little too much green leaves, but then I spent most of the movie thinking “where did those arms come from?”

  25. to Hello about 300, sorry to tell you it’s mostly paint. Rodrigo Santoro who plays Xerxes has a great body usually but appears bulked up even more. When interviewed he said he has surprised how big he looked on screen.
    And about Bale bulkin for batman someone said something about the movie being a batman movie and not a “bearman”, and he had to lose some of the weight. You can hear about it on one of the extras of the DVD.

  26. Re: James Spader

    He was also pretty pumped up in Keys to Tulsa.

    Re: Christian Bale

    I thought his appearance in American Psycho was closer to what a martial arts Batman should be. More Bruce Lee-like.

    In Batman, he was beefy-muscle, not lean-muscle as he was earlier.

  27. Christian seems to have a death wish. But Im impressed that he seems to be able to do with ease what people at the Big Fat Loser camp find impossible.

  28. Christian Bale is a freak. I hope he did damage his heart for the sake of a movie. The viral audio of him cursing out a lighting crew member on a movie shows what an arrogant prick he is. How many millions does he make and he has to curse some guy making 60k?

  29. What about Dennis Quaid in “The Rookie?” I mean, he’s not a monster by any means…but it is funny how ripped he seems to be (not sure if there are any shirtless or otherwise solid depictions). Regardless, he’s ripped ass shit, and it’s ironic that he’s playing an a middle-aged pitcher; furthermore, pitchers are possibly the most prevalent group of ‘roiders out there, as it is used for recovery instead of simply building muscle mass. It has gone virtually unnoticed besides some obvious cases where muscular pitchers were questioned…i.e. Roger Clemens. But aging pitchers like Andy “whatever his name was” from the Yanks and others who prolonged their careers were likely guilty of juicing!

  30. ASIANS CAN ACTUALLY READ MINDS!!!!!!!!!!
    they can hear, and see what your visually thinking
    this is the dead truth

    the reason alot of asians have completely expressionless faces, only associate with asians and dont associate with non asians very much is to avoid accidentally revealing that they can read read minds, if all over a billion asians were to show facial expressions all the time just as much as non asians, associate with non asians much more, and be much more friendly and talkative, then alot of them might accidentally reveal that they can read minds by accidentally showing a facial expression or dirty look when someone thinks, or visually pictures something in their mind they dont like or find astonishing or funny, and if they were all to associate with non asians alot more there would be alot more people around for them to accidentally show facial expressions when those other people think things they dont like, so they only associate with asians so there wont be anyone around for them to see that and have any accidents happen in the first place

    think about it, its not normal how alot of them act, and the entire way they act is all to hide their mind reading abilities, it makes perfect sense to do all of that to hide that they can read minds, because all of that is the perfect way to do it!
    every single asian on the planet is hiding their mind reading abilities, they will lie about having mind reading abilities to the death!
    because they value hiding their mind reading abilities more then their own lives!
    thats why nobody knows about it!

    try thinking, best yet visually picturing in your mind something something absolutely crazy as you possibly can when you are around asians, and try looking for asians who give people particular looks, especially dirty looks for what appears to be for completely no reason, that is them giving people looks when they hear and visually see someone thinking something they dont like, find funny or astonishing
    it still happens despite a large number of them having completely expressionless faces all the time, it would just happen alot more if none of them had completely expressionless faces all the time, its not uncommon!

    i know this sounds crazy, impossible, and completely unbelievable, BUT IT ISNT CRAZY WHEN ITS TRUE

    the reason you think this truly is crazy, impossible and unbelieveable is because our society has propagandized people into believing that nothing extra ordinary is real and that is really is impossible, and that its crazy to think that its true that people can read minds, all just to cover up that asians can read minds! who says that cant exist? the people who have mind reading abilities who are trying to cover it up!

    you have to spread the message!!!
    the world has to know about this!!!!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.