Before he became one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actors, Eric Bana did an incredible performance in the 2000 film, ‘Chopper’, which made the critics notice him for the first time. Now, Bana has always been a very good-looking and fit man, but for Chopper, where he played infamous Australian criminal Mark “Chopper” Read, he had to put on 30 pounds in a few months.
Bana claims he just ate junk food like there was no tomorrow, and if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll believe it. The Australian actor looked super beefy, which combined with a chipped tooth and a body covered in tattoos made him look like the actual Chopper’s doppelganger. He went on to earn the award for best Actor in a Leading Role from the Australian Film Institute.
Johnny Depp
An actor, musician, and producer, Johnny Depp has done so much in film we simply couldn't ignore him. Among his numerous awards and nominations, there are ten Golden Globes nominations, one of which he won. With his versatile acting skill he has often played eccentric characters, all of which contributed to his undeniable allure, both on and off screen.
He is known for playing eccentric characters and for his many collaborations with filmmaker Tim Burton, but his most memorable part in the last 20 years is definitely that of Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. As the perpetually drunk pirate with never ending luck, Depp's Sparrow redefined the way we think of pirates today.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Known to many as Sherlock Holmes from the mini-series Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch has made quite a splash in film as well, most notably, in The Imitation Game. Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing, a man who is considered to be one of the first computer scientists ever and a mathematical genius in general. Turing builds a machine to decode the Enigma – an elaborate coding system used by the Nazi regime.
Historically speaking, the events in the film are dubbed as true to reality. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won in the Best Adapted Screenplay. Cumberbatch himself was nominated for numerous awards for his portrayal of Turing, and even won the Hollywood Film Award for Best Actor.
Mark Wahlberg
Marky Mark made cinema history in 1997, when he played the star of Paul Thomas Anderson's classic film 'Boogie Nights'. With the countless movies he's starred in ever since, it's hard to pick a best performance, but one thing's for sure: his most incredible transformation was in the 2014 drama, 'The Gambler'. Playing a literature professor with a series gambling addiction, Wahlberg had to lose 40 pounds!
The actor claimed that he was on a rigid six-week liquid diet that consisted of drinking 8 ounces of almond milk three times a day. "I was miserable because I like food," said Wahlberg in an interview with E!. And since the actor wasn't losing enough weight on the almond milk diet, he also had t exercise for three hours every day, after a 12-hour work day!
Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe had to work hard to achieve his chiseled 'Gladiator' figure. Despite him playing in other films or TV shows prior to Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, this film is what made him world-famous. His part as Maximus the gladiator won Crowe an Academy Award for Best Actor. Crowe and Scott worked together again in 2008's 'Body of Lies', where Crowe played a CIA agent. For the part, and as per Ridley Scott's request, Crowe had to gain weight to portray the heavy, sedentary Ed Hoffman, which meant Crowe had to give up his gladiator body for the job.
Crowe claimed that he just "decided to eat whatever he wanted", and made sure he had the most sedentary lifestyle possible. In an interview with E! news, the former gladiator rightly said, “If you want to put on weight, you just elect to live a sedentary life style,”. That definitely sounds like a "diet" plan we can get behind of.