A lot of times actors have to gain muscle or lose weight for roles. Exercising and eating clean are two key components of getting in shape for a movie, and doing that for months on end can be tough. However, we talk less often about how tough it can actually be to pack on weight for a role. Charlize Theron recently packed on the pounds for the new Jason Reitman movie Tully, and she was very blunt in a recent interview when she explained exactly how she gained 50 pounds for the new movie. According to the actress,
The first three weeks are always fun because you're just like a kid in a candy store. So it was fun to go and have breakfast at In-N-Out and have two milkshakes. And then after three weeks, it's not fun anymore. Like, all of a sudden you're just done eating that amount and then it becomes a job. I remember having to set my alarm in the middle of the night in order to just maintain [the weight].
Seriously, I was snacking on some crackers while writing this and the further I got into unpacking Charlize Theron's comments, the less and less appetizing eating became. There's nothing like having a day where you throw back an awesome cheeseburger and fries -- and hey, maybe even a milkshake, I'm not judging. Regardless, there also have to be days in between where you, like, actually consume vegetables, and from what Charlize Theron has stated in interviews, there were no breaks from eating poorly. She's normally a fit person, but for this movie, she spent three and a half months gaining weight for the role and ultimately got to where she thought the character should be.
Charlize Theron also told ET that things took a turn for the worse after she started setting that alarm when she had to eat. Seriously, her description of eating cold dairy in the middle of the night may put you off your appetite, so you have been forewarned. She said:
I would literally wake up at two in the morning and I'd have a cup of cold macaroni and cheese just next to me. I would wake up and I would just eat it...I would just, like, shove it in my throat. It's hard to maintain that weight.
It's not that Charlize Theron was force fed, but in order to obtain her goal, she was forced to get up and eat. The result helped her to get into her character's mindset in Tully, but it also affected her personally. The actress says she dealt with depression while gaining weight for the role, noting she "was not that fun to be around" when her weight was so high. She also has said it took her a year and a half to lose the weight that only took a few short months to put on. She's back in shape and away from the processed food diet these days, but she'll always have the reminder of the process she went through, at least she will always have that reminder once Tully hits theaters and later, homes. You can catch Tully when it is officially released this weekend, or check out our full schedule of what flicks are coming up.
