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.
Eric Bana
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.
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!
Bradley Cooper
Bradley Cooper has become a well-known name in Hollywood in the past decade. With films like 'Silver Linings Playbook', 'Limitless', and his wonderful voice acting in 'Guardians of the Galaxy', the Philadelphia-born actor has certainly proved his acting skills. His most memorable performance, however, has to be that of Jackson Maine, the alcoholic singer discovering a promising young singer and falling in love with her in the process.
What makes his performance there extremely powerful is the fact that he hows off not only his acting skills but his impressive vocals. Other than that, Cooper also directed, co-produced and co-wrote the film. All that talent could never go unnoticed.
Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler cemented his name in Hollywood after starring in the epic war action film, '300'. For part of King Leonidas, Butler had to go through four arduous months of hard training, which included working out for six hours a day. For two of those six hours, Butler and the rest of the cast endured a special training that included deadlifts, pull-ups, push-ups, box jumps, and more, in order to keep all the men in perfect shape. After all, they were playing Spartans.
Butler has said that he was inspired by seeing the other members of the cast train so hard too, and it pushed him to do more every day. He has said that "it was a very powerful place to be".