Every actor’s to-do list: get fat, win Oscar

Matt Damon looking like a bloated, 1970s, German sex pest is the talk of tinseltown, but it’s obviously just for a role. It’s always just for a role: except in the case of Kirstie Alley when it was more to do with a bacon roll. And a doughnut. And a steak. And! you get the idea.

Short of playing a war veteran, piling on the pounds and uglying up is the fast route to Oscar success.

Here’s our top five film fatties:

1. George Clooney

Matt Damon’s mate, the silver fox, gained about 30 pounds to play a C.I.A. agent in Syriana.
He didn’t like it much. Matt Damon blabs thus:

“He had put on all that weight and he was really depressed. George was like that because he’s a really active guy and he couldn’t move around. He had to just sit there.

“I’d never seen him like that before. He’s normally the life of the party but he was really depressed.”

Shame no-one watched it.

2. Matthew Rhys

Romantic Welshman, Rhys, piled on the pounds to play romantic Welshman, Dylan Thomas, in the Sienna Miller/Keira Knightley vehicle, Edge of Love.

He told the Daily Express:

“I have to say that I went to see a nutritionist, because it’s quite easy to put a lot of weight on but you can clog your arteries doing it, so she advised me how to gain the weight healthily [eating fibre and protein].
“Then I ignored all her healthy weight-gain plans and hit the pies and Guinness. It really did work.”

3. Toni Collette

Aussie actress, Toni Collette, gained over three stone to play the eponymous role in Muriel’s Wedding. The knock-on effects lasted longer than the film shoot, however, when it was rumoured she became bulimic to slim back down.

She’s since had to yo-yo diet for a role in Chick Flick rot, In Her Shoes, but won’t do it again in a hurry:

“I vowed to the high heavens that I would never put on weight again for a movie, but Curtis Hanson has this way of getting what he wants and I ended up putting on 25 pounds to play the part.

“Then, once ROSE, my character, becomes a happier person it affects her physically so I then had to lose the weight through a rigid diet and exercise programme during the middle of shooting.

“I don’t think I’ll be doing this weight see-saw thing again.” (contactmusic.com)

4. Robert De Niro

The daddio of role preparation (pre-Meet The Parents), Bobby De Niro put on 60lbs to play Jake La Motta in Raging Bull.

It was one of the first instances of a star deliberately gaining a huge amount of weight to add to the realism of the performance. So - technically - we have Robert De Niro to blame for Bridget Jones. Sort of.

5. Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron didn’t just gain weight for her role in Monster. She played it gay. And she got ugly too.

And that is why she deserved her Oscar.

Her weight gain (reports vary of between 25 and 40lb) for the role of serial killer Aileen Wournos impressed the Academy Award panel and she won Best Actress in 2004.