Beefing Up, Again: 10 More Actors Who Underwent Remarkable Physical Transformations For Their Roles

Colin Farrell For Triage

Colin Farrell shed a remarkable 44 pounds for his role in 2009’s Triage, in which the actor plays a photojournalist who has returned home from worn-torn Bosnia. Farrell viewed the loss as necessary to portraying his character and said he was inspired by a passage from the Scott Anderson novel which the script was based on. The description of his character from the novel is below.

“He went to the bathroom to shave. Once his beard was gone he saw that his face had become drawn. He pressed at the hollows beneath his eyes, the pronounced nubs of his cheekbones.”

At first, Farrell insisted that his loss was extremely healthy, and compared to the circulating rumors that the loss was the result of drug use, it was, but once he revealed specific details, light was shed on just how intense his regime was. His diet during the loss consisted of only black coffee, diet coke, and tuna, for a grand total of a about 300 calories a day. Sounds like just about the least healthy way to slim down.

However, it worked for Farrell, as he is back to his normal weight now. He said after the film that he simply ate like a pig until he was back to his normal size.