At times, actors can be called upon to dramatically change their physical appearance for a role. Sometimes, this can be achieved through clever makeup, costumes, and prosthetics. Other times, computer graphics can be used to alter an actor’s appearance. Then there are other situations in which actors decide to completely immerse themselves in not just the mind of the character they are playing, but also their body (a form of method acting).
It takes serious commitment for actors to dedicate themselves to changing their habits and sticking to new training and nutrition plans to achieve the physique and physical fitness required for a role. As is the case with some of the more well-known physical transformations like Christian Bale in The Machinist, Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club, and Natalie Portman in Black Swan, the transformations aren’t always on the healthy side (learn more). However, this form of method acting can help actors fully embrace the role that they have signed up to play, with real life mental and physical struggles included as part of their transformations to help them portray their characters’ emotional battles with authenticity.
Below are some other examples of serious body transformations of actors who committed themselves to training like their characters would in the following fight and action films.
Matt Damon for Jason Bourne
Matt Damon, star of the Bourne series, had to undergo a rigorous fitness routine in order to prepare for filming the latest Jason Bourne movie. Damon is no stranger to body transformations, though. He lost 40 lbs for his role as an opiate-addicted soldier in the 1996 film Courage Under Fire. Then in 2009, he gained 30 lbs for Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! For the 2016 Jason Bourne film, which was partially filmed on the Las Vegas Strip, Damon toned up and gained muscle.
More than a year before production started on Jason Bourne, Damon was already training for his role in the film. Damon was working with a trainer, Jason Walsh, to help him get in shape while he was filming two movies, The Martian and The Great Wall. Walsh had previously helped Damon get into shape for the 2013 movie Elysium.
After Damon was finished shootingThe Martian and The Great Wall, he was in Los Angeles for only two weeks before Jason Bourne began filming. The filmmakers wanted Damon’s character to be raw, conflicted, and experiencing mental turmoil, so Walsh’s goal was to completely exhaust Damon (source).
Damon’s training regimen consisted of one and a half hours a day, five days a week of:
- Utilizing the VersaClimber climbing machine
- More long and hilly runs
- Heavy lifting and metabolic training
- Lots of squats, lunges, pull ups, push ups, and other bodyweight exercises
- Shadow boxing and speed drills
Damon also had a chef to help keep his nutrition in check as well as a supportive wife who would run with Damon as well as do a lot of the workouts with him (source).
Watch Matt Damon talk about the fight scenes in Jason Bourne:
“Jason Bourne – Featurette: “Fight Style” (HD)” by Universal Pictures
Jake Gyllenhaal for Southpaw
Jake Gyllenhaal lost 30 lbs for his role in Nightcrawler, but he turned right around and regained that weight, putting on an extra 15 lbs of muscle for his role as a professional boxer in Southpaw. The film, which included scenes filmed at Caesars Palace, had not just Gyllenhaal going on an intense physical journey but also the film’s director, Antoine Fuqua. Fuqua told Gyllenhaal that he needed him to train like a fighter for the film’s authenticity. However, Fuqua went above and beyond in motivating his lead actor by joining him on his training sessions.
It took six months of training before the production began filming. Gyllenhaal worked out twice a day for six hours total (source). His training each day included:
- 2,000 sit ups a day – 1,000 in the morning and 1,000 at night
- 3 hours of boxing
- 3 hours of cardio and weight training
Gyllenhaal also trained at Floyd Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas, NV. While Mayweather himself was not there while Gyllenhaal was, he still picked up a lot of good energy from the environment (source).
Watch Jake Gyllenhaal and Antoine Fuqua talk about training for Southpaw:
“SOUTHPAW – Training Behind-The-Scenes W/ Jake Gyllenhaal – The Weinstein Company” by The Weinstein Company
Kevin James for Here Comes the Boom
Kevin James holds the record for the most weight gained/lost for a film, losing an astonishing 80 lbs. James is no stranger to the UFC and MMA scene, having trained occasionally for years in mixed martial arts. In Here Comes the Boom, which has a few scenes filmed in Las Vegas, James plays a high school biology teacher who takes up MMA in order to raise money for his school.
For 14 months, James worked out three times a day. His fitness regimen included running and sparring, as well as updating his diet. He said that he got in such good shape that he was able to do all of his fight scenes without sustaining any injuries (source).
Watch Kevin James and some MMA pros talk about the training James went through for Here Comes the Boom:
“Here Comes The Boom Learning How To Fight” by SonyPicsHomeEntNL
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