21 Actors Who’ve Made Major Physical Transformations for Roles

Bradley Cooper in 'Maestro.'

There’s Method acting, and then there’s undergoing a physical transformation so intense that viewers don’t even recognize you onscreen. The latter is such a surefire path to awards glory that some critics have quipped that the best way to win an acting Oscar is to “go ugly.”

It’s a joke, but the sentiment behind rings true: Nicole Kidman, Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and many more have won industry trophies for performances that hid their A-list good looks under makeup, prosthetics or extreme weight loss.

“I was more focused than I’ve ever been,” McConaughey told Time Out in February 2014 when discussing the transformation he underwent for Dallas Buyers Club. “All the energy and power I lost from the neck down sublimated into my brain. I needed three hours less sleep a night. I didn’t have physical energy, but my mental energy was through the roof.”

The commitment paid off, because that same year, McConaughey took home his first Academy Award for Best Actor. Keep reading for a look back at more stars who’ve undergone massive physical transformations for roles.

Actors who’ve made major physical transformations for roles

1. Bradley Cooper (Maestro)

Bradley Cooper is the latest actor to pull off a major physical change for his role as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, which he also directed. One of the most noticeable features of his costume includes a prosthetic nose, which some critics slammed as antisemitic when teasers from the movie debuted ahead of its Nov. 22, 2023, release. Bernstein’s children, however, were supportive of Cooper’s performance—prosthetic nose and all.

“Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father,” Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein said in an August 2023 statement. “We were touched to the core to witness the depth of his commitment, his loving embrace of our father’s music, and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration.”

Related: Why Bradley Cooper Considered Himself 'Lucky' on Sobriety Journey

2. Nicole Kidman (The Hours)

Nicole Kidman won her first Oscar for 2002’s The Hours, in which she too wore a large prosthetic nose to play Virginia Woolf. Nearly 20 years later, she made herself unrecognizable again as Gretchen Carlson in 2019’s Bombshell. Kazu Hiro, the legendary makeup and special effects artist responsible for the Carlson look, won his own Oscar for his work on the film.

3. Colin Farrell (The Batman)

Colin Farrell, long known as one of Hollywood’s handsomest leading men, hid his trademark jawline under layers and layers of prosthetics for his turn as Oswald Cobblepot (aka The Penguin) in 2022’s The Batman. It took three hours every day to turn him into the villain, but the effort paid off—Farrell was disguised so well that he went to Starbucks incognito during filming.

Related: Colin Farrell Is Unrecognizable in 'The Penguin' TV Series: Everything to Know About the Upcoming Max Show

4. Charlize Theron (Monster)

Charlize Theron has undergone multiple physical transformations over the years for the sake of her art. Most notably, she gained 30 pounds and wore uncanny makeup for 2003’s Monster (and yes, she won an Oscar). Theron gained weight again for 2018’s Tully, but she said that experience convinced her never to change her weight for a role again.

“I remember a year into trying to lose the weight, I called my doctor and I said, ‘I think I’m dying because I cannot lose this weight,’” she told Allure in August 2023. “And he was like, ‘You’re over 40. Calm down. Your metabolism is not what it was.’ Nobody wants to hear that.” Theron was also part of the unrecognizable cast of Bombshell, wearing a wig and prosthetics to play Megyn Kelly.

Related: 'Monster' Bank Account—Charlize Theron's Net Worth Is Almost as Big as Her Acting Range!

5. Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Matthew McConaughey lost 50 pounds to play Ron Woodruff in 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, which won him his first Oscar. “I did not torture myself,” he recalled during an October 2020 interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast. “I was militant. The hardest part was making the damn choice.”

6. Renée Zellweger (The Thing About Pam)

Renée Zellweger’s first brush with physical “transformation” came with Bridget Jones’s Diary in 2001. She famously gained 30 pounds to play the titular character, but the hubbub over her still very average-sized body seems comical now. In 2022, she underwent a much more noticeable change for the NBC miniseries The Thing About Pam, in which she controversially wore prosthetics and a padded suit to appear overweight.

7. Michael Fassbender (Hunger)

Michael Fassbender lost more than 40 pounds to play Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen’s 2008 film Hunger. “I went for my final check-up after filming, and my doctor said, ‘Last time you came in here you looked pretty bad. My assistant was outside and she saw you and said, ‘My God, that guy's really ill, isn't he?’ She thought you had cancer,’” Fassbender recalled to Bang! Showbiz in 2011.

8. Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)

Gary Oldman won an Oscar for his 2017 performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, in which he was hidden under prosthetics that took four hours to apply every day. Like Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron in Bombshell, Oldman got help from makeup artist Kazu Hiro, who also won an Academy Award for his work on the film.

9. Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

Anne Hathaway lost 25 pounds and shaved her head to play Fantine in the 2012 big-screen adaptation of Les Misérables. Hathaway won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work, but she later said she lost an “unhealthy” amount of weight in too short of a time. “I didn’t know anything about nutrition,” she said during a 2019 interview with Jess Cagle. “I taxed my body, and my brain bore the brunt of it for a while. I just felt very anxious and very lost at that time.”

10. Christian Bale (The Machinist)

Christian Bale is a repeat offender when it comes to transforming himself for roles. Perhaps most famously, he lost more than 60 pounds for his role in 2004’s The Machinist. On the opposite end of the spectrum, he ate a lot of pies to gain weight for his turn as former Vice President Dick Cheney in 2018’s Vice.

11. Demi Moore (G.I. Jane)

Demi Moore actually gained weight for her role in 1997’s G.I. Jane because she needed a good amount of muscle to convincingly play a military officer. She also shaved her head for the role. “My usual reaction would have been to start starving myself again, to begin an exercise regime designed to reduce the bulk, but I did neither,” Moore recalled in her 2019 memoir, Inside Out. “I had reached my limit.”

12. Jared Leto (House of Gucci)

Like Christian Bale, Jared Leto has repeatedly transformed himself for movies. Most recently, he hid his svelte physique and signature long locks under layers of prosthetics to play Paolo Gucci in 2019’s House of Gucci. “It took us an hour and a half just to cover his hair,” prosthetics designer G?ran Lundstr?m told Variety in November 2021. One of Leto’s other notable transformations happened in 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, in which he controversially played the transgender character Rayon. Like his costar Matthew McConaughey, he won an Oscar for the film.

13. Jennifer Aniston (Cake)

Jennifer Aniston stopped working out for two months to gain weight for 2014’s Cake, in which she played a not-so-glamorous woman named Claire. She also went completely without makeup for the role, which earned her a Golden Globe nod and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

Related: Jennifer Aniston's Net Worth In 2023 and How Much She Makes From 'Friends' and More

14. David Harbour (Stranger Things)

David Harbour lost a total of 75 pounds for Season 4 of Stranger Things, in which his character, Jim Hopper, had been imprisoned in a Russian gulag. He then bulked up again to play Santa Claus in 2022’s Violent Night. “I don’t think I’ll ever do that again,” he told British GQ in 2022, referring to his Santa weight gain. “The prosthetics are too good.”

Related: Everything We Know About 'Stranger Things' Season 5

15. Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby)

Hilary Swank added 19 pounds of muscle to play boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in 2004’s Million Dollar Baby. “I had to eat every hour and a half,” Swank told MovieWeb in 2005. “So with a meal, I would drink my egg whites because I could never eat eight to 12 egg whites in a sitting. It’s just the worst thing ever.” And yes, the wild diet was a success—she took home the Oscar in 2005.

16. Kumail Nanjiani (Eternals)

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After playing a nerdy programmer on Silicon Valley, Kumail Nanjiani bulked up to play superhero Kingo in 2021’s Eternals. He later said that the attention surrounding his body transformation heightened his “unhealthy” relationship with food. “I don’t regret releasing those pictures because they did change my life,” he told NPR in 2022, referring to viral photos that showed him with shredded abs. “However, I do wish it didn’t occupy as much of my head space as it does.”

17. Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)

To play Lisbeth Salander in 2011’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Rooney Mara chopped off her hair, bleached her eyebrows, and had her ears, eyebrow, lip and nipple pierced. "I didn't even have pierced ears [before]," Mara told W magazine in 2011. "They put four holes in each ear, and, weirdly, that hurt the most."

18. Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Joaquin Phoenix lost 52 pounds to play Arthur Fleck in 2019’s Joker, at the behest of director Todd Phillips. “I felt like I could move my body in ways that I hadn’t been able to before,” he told the Associated Press in 2019. “And I think that really lent itself to some of the physical movement that started to emerge as an important part of the character.” That extra fluidity worked, because he won the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance.

19. Lily James (Pam & Tommy)

Lily James became the spitting image of Pamela Anderson for the 2022 Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy by spending four-plus hours in the makeup chair every day. Her costume included a pair of acrylic dentures that helped her recreate Anderson’s signature smile as well as a forehead prosthetic that covered James’ eyebrows. “It’s just insane to look in a mirror and really not see yourself anymore,” James, who scored an Emmy nomination for the role, told Vanity Fair in 2022. “It just meant that I felt so much braver. I had less of my own self-inflicted boundaries of what I am and how I perceived myself. And this was just, like, all gloves are off. I could just be anything.”

20. 50 Cent (All Things Fall Apart)

50 Cent is known for his muscular physique, but he shocked fans in 2010 when he dropped more than 50 pounds for the film All Things Fall Apart. “I had to discipline myself not … to actually have myself be in the physical state to convey the energy I felt,” the rapper told the Associated Press in 2010. “It’s a passion project for me.”

21. Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)

Jessica Chastain fully transformed into televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker for 2021’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye with help from Oscar-winning hair and makeup team Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh. “This was a learning curve for Jessica as she had never worn extensive prosthetics,” Raleigh explained to The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “I tried to accommodate and make it as painless as possible. It was a daunting task pushing for a level of perfection and seamlessness.” Chastain passed the test, though, winning an Oscar, Critics’ Choice Award and SAG Award for her performance.

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