Brendan Fraser
The 53-year-old actor surprised us in the preview of his new film The Whale, in which he plays Charlie, a writer who abandons his family to run away with his gay lover, but after his death, he begins to compulsive eating to the point of suffering from morbid obesity. In his new role, Fraser looks like a man weighing almost 300 kilos.
Charlize Theron
On two occasions, Charlize Theron has had to risk her physical appearance to create a character. The first time was in Monster where he went 100 percent to make Aileen Wuornos totally believable, a woman inspired by the real case of a former prostitute executed in 2002 for having killed seven men who, she said, had raped her, including 1989 and 1990. Specialized critics praised Theron's performance because she gained about 15 kilos. In addition to the excess weight that she gained, the actress used prosthetics both on her face and in other parts of her body and they added false teeth. Her performance earned her the Oscar for Best Actress in 2004.
Another highlight in her career was when in 2018 she played Marlo in the film Tully, directed by Jason Reitman. Her role was that of a mother of three children who begins to gain weight as the days go by. The actress recalled that at first, it was fun to eat everything, especially sweets, but later she wasn't so much fun. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2018, she said that she set the alarm to get up to eat in the middle of the night.
“I would wake up at two in the morning and eat a plate of cold macaroni and cheese. For the first time in my life, I had to eat a lot of processed foods and drink sugary drinks. “My little son was convinced I had a baby in my stomach and I thought it was too real for me,” she commented.
Natalie Portman
“There were nights when I thought I was literally going to die. It was the first time I understood how you can be absorbed by a role that can bring you down," Natalie Portman confessed in 2011 to the Huffington Post. The actress was referring to the pace of work, the stress, and the demands of the production to play "Nina Sayers in The Black Swan. To achieve this, she underwent a strict diet and training to lose nine kilos. Her character was that of a dancer with a personality disorder; she also has problems with anorexia, bulimia, and narcissism." “He’s probably bipolar,” Natalie said.
“I am afraid of many things and I am not looking for danger. I like extreme experiences, but not those that I feel endanger my life. When it comes to work, I try to do things that scare me because they challenge me. But I didn't know what I was getting into with this,” she declared in 2011.
