Bradley Cooper is winning plaudits for his body-contorting incarnation of Joseph Merrick in new West End production The Elephant Man. With little more than a lop-sided stance and some serious gurning, three-time Oscar-nominated Cooper is completely transformed; leaving his good looks firmly at the side of the Theatre Royal Haymarket’s stage. The Hangover star is the latest in a long line of easy-on-the-eye actors who temporarily forgo their looks for the sake of their art. Here, Dailymail, looks back at some of the most eye-opening transformations in recent acting history.
Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
In February this year, fair-haired Eddie Redmayne clinched an Oscar for his role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. So convincing was the English actor’s playing of the world-renowned theoretical physicist, even Hawking himself congratulated the 33-year-old on his uncanny performance. On his Facebook page, Hawking wrote: “Congratulations to Eddie Redmayne for winning an Oscar for playing me in The Theory of Everything movie. Well done Eddie, I’m very proud of you. SH.” In the film, Redmayne plays the 73-year-old scientist, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease, at various stages in his life, from a healthy youth studying at Cambridge to his wheelchair-bound adult years. In a bid to accurately portray Hawking, Redmayne researched intensively and spent time with the scientist and his family, and also with other families affected by the disease. After scooping the Oscar, Redmayne said: “It’s this extraordinary thing where you’re lucky enough to tell a story like this, the amount of people involved that help make you be able to tell that story, there are always more people you need to thank.”
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
When Matthew McConaughey took on the role of AIDS sufferer Ron Woodroof in 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, the normally athletic actor shed three stone in weight. The Texas-born star survived on an eating plan of Diet Coke, egg whites and a solitary piece of chicken a day to slim down to a tiny 60kg. Matthew, 43, told the Radio Times afterwards: “I had to relearn how to entertain myself, because I wasn’t going outside, I wasn’t going to dinner, I wasn’t going to social places.” The hunk, who won an Oscar for the role, even stayed indoors to ensure he had exactly the right pallor for the role, saying: “This guy needed to be pale, so I didn’t go outside in the sun for six months. In the summer, I gave myself a winter.”
Charlize Theron (Monster)
Another Oscar winner, Charlize Theron walked away with a golden statue following her 2003 crime drama Monster. The South African beauty, who’s dating Sean Penn, looked like a different woman when she portrayed US serial killer Aileen Wuornos on the big screen. Leaving glamour at the door, Charlize Theron wore prosthetic teeth and gained 13kg to play serial killer Aileen Wuornos who was convicted of the murder of six men in Florida between the late Eighties and early nineties and was executed for her crimes in 2002. In a bid to look as much like the high-profile murderess as possible, Theron shaved off her eyebrows and wore false teeth. She also gained 13kg for the role, after turning to doughnuts and crisps to gain weight quickly. She said: “I first began stuffing myself with Krispy Kreme doughnuts, but after a while I got sick of them. I love potato chips, so that was a good thing for me. I’m a salty girl so I had my secret stash with me of potato chips at all times. ”The hard work paid off. Theron scooped 17 awards.
Christian Bale (The Machinist)
The past master at movie weight loss, Christian Bale shed a disturbing 27kg for his role in 2004 psychological thriller The Machinist. The Batman star’s skeletal frame saw him unrecognisable as haunted Trevor Reznik, whose battle with insomnia led to him becoming severely emaciated. When it was revealed to the actor that he didn’t actually need to lose as much weight as he did – that a typo was responsible for the weight loss target issued by the director – Bale remained committed to what he’d started and lost the pounds anyway. One apple and a can of tuna were said to be on the menu for Bale while he was shedding the pounds, and little else it seems. The hardest part of his cinematic makeover? Putting the weight back on. Bale said he ignored advice about how to do it gradually and instead made himself ill with gorging. “I overdid it because I was enjoying gorging.”
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
She declared earlier this year that she didn’t actually covet winning an Oscar for her role as a deeply troubled ballerina in the hit film Black Swan but there’s no doubting Natalie Portman’s commitment to the project. In fact, the actress said she thought at some points during filming that she might expire, saying: “There were some nights that I thought I literally was going to die.” To accurately convey just how much pressure there is on young ballerinas to be thin, Portman shed 9kg, surviving on a diet of almonds and carrots while rehearsing up to eight hours a day.
Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones’s Diary)
The Texan actress wanted to lose more than just her clipped English vowels after finishing filming the Bridget Jones films in which she played a London-based television reporter unlucky in love. The slender actress famously embarked on a 4,000 calorie-a-day diet to load on 9kg in just a few months to play Bridget Jones (twice) — then, as swiftly as she gained the curves, her weight plummeted to a sinewy size zero. Her post-Bridget regime reportedly involved a punishing schedule of hiking, swimming, running and gym sessions, coupled with a low-carbohydrate diet.
