MOVIE MADNESS

Why Hollywood Needs A New Health Plan

What do Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Matt Damon, and 50 Cent all have in common? Think hard, can you figure it out?

The answer, of course, is that all lost or gained a tremendous amount of weight to play a role in a movie. Talk about taking your job seriously! These guys are truly committed to getting into character – whatever the cost…

Add to the list Tom Hanks (Cast Away; Philadelphia), Russell Crowe (The Insider) and Christian Bale (The Machinist). In fact it was Christian’s recent weight loss for his upcoming movie The Fighter (alongside Mark Wahlberg) that got me thinking about this piece in the first place… here’s the trailer. Wow – the Dark Knight doesn’t look like a superhero here does he…

These extreme diets (and weight gains) often bring critical acclaim and even awards – but are they safe? Can you really lose – or gain – large amounts of weight safely in a short period of time? And when it comes to acting – how far is too far?

My answer might surprise you! In my opinion it can be safe to go up or down in weight, what matters is how you go about it. I remember Val Kilmer explaining that to play Jim Morrison he ate nothing but ice cream all day to gain weight, while Christian Bale consumed just an apple a day to achieve his emaciated Machinist look. Both chose unhealthy and dangerous ways to achieve the desired result. In Val’s case, the overload of simple sugar and saturated fat from his “diet” could have had serious health implications. Abundance of sugar wreaks havoc on insulin levels (the carrier that transports sugar), and can interrupt concentration and cognitive function, never mind the ridiculously high levels of cholesterol producing fat. I am sure he felt like crap. And he looked it!

Christian on the other hand went the other route, He starved himself and forced his body to eat itself, literally. Without sufficient calories the human body strips down muscle tissue for use as fuel because you simply aren’t giving it enough power. The fact that he was able to read lines with no brain glucose (sugar) to support his thought process is amazing. Your metabolism slows to nearly nothing, and all other cellular functions suffer. Your skin is dry, hair becomes brittle, organ function declines, it’s a real mess. It’s like watching a flower that get’s a drop of water a day, struggling, sad and ugly.

Bodybuilders are notorious for huge fluctuations in body weight, however they do not employ such self-defeating tactics as Hollywood A-listers. In fact many actors should take notes right from the weight training community on how to manipulate their weight safely.

Christian and Val did not need to go to such health degrading extremes to achieve the desired look. In Val’s case, he could have simply overeaten, with good foods containing healthy fat. Yes, even good food will make you fat if you eat too much consistently. Likewise, Christian, could have slowly dropped calories one week at a time, exercised and allowed his body to adjust and lose the weight. He probably could have achieved the same result eating 1,200 calories a day, allowing a much healthier body while achieving the same look.

The bigger issue is the rebound effect that all of these actors suffer from when they return to their ‘normal’ weight. When Christian returned back to a normal diet, he most likely swelled up like a balloon as his body super saturated itself with nutrients, and soaked up water and salt like a sponge, leaving him looking like a blowfish. It must have taken weeks for his body to normalize.

Val on the other hand, probably suffered for months to get back to his then lean body shape as it’s always easier to gain then to lose, both physically and mentally. Their systems were a mess and had probably become horribly inefficient at processing food and nutrients.

Trying to eat normal food after a severe diet is like pushing a square through a circle. It’s a lesson a lot of people in society could do with learning. Going to extremes is never the answer…