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Featured Image Credit: Paramount Classics
Topics: Christian Bale, Health, Celebrity, Film
Anish Vij
Most actors will adapt their bodies to fit the demands of a movie role.
But it's safe to say that Christian Bale often goes that extra mile to look the part, and it's not recommended.
He famously lost 62 pounds to play Trevor Reznik in 2004's The Machinist, going from 173 pounds to just 110 pounds.
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And his diet and dedication in what was his most extreme transformation is truly difficult to believe.
Bale starred as an insomniac, who was plagued by guilt and paranoia, so much so that he underwent an alarmingly restrictive diet.
He reportedly ate just one can of tuna a day, along with a single apple. Drinks-wise, he consumed just coffee and water.
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This would equate to around 200 calories, which is terrifyingly far away from 2,500 calories, the daily recommended amount for an adult male.
The American Hustle actor also said he would smoke often to curb his hunger, as well as reading for 10 hours straight to keep his mind off eating.
“It’s an amazing experience doing that,” he said to The Guardian in 2018. “When you’re so skinny that you can hardly walk up a flight of stairs, you’re like, this being of pure thought.”
On what it was like to have just two hours of sleep a night, Bale said it was 'the most Zen-like state I’ve ever been in my life'.
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"I’d do a bit of eating hardly anything and losing 51 pounds, and then I’d put on seven pounds bingeing one night because I’d have a couple of drinks," he explained.
"So I decided no more social life, no more friends, no more dinners, no more drinks."
In 2022, he also told GQ: "Also, at the time I was engaged in a very filthy habit of smoking. So, I was rolling my own cigarettes and sitting there puffing away.
"The main point was that somehow losing all the physical weight put all the energy into my brain and so I only slept two hours a night and all I wanted to do was read.
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"And so I would just sit and read endlessly and I found that I could read without stopping or moving or needing a distraction. I could just sit and read for 10 hours straight without moving a muscle."
However, Bale did admit that losing so much weight in a short period of time was not wise.
"There was no money in it and it was like, Ooh bloody hell, I'm gonna lose my place or [where] I'm living,' and I was quite newly married and all that, so it wasn't the business smart thing to do," he reflected.
His physical transformation is even more incredible given the fact that he bulked up to 220 pounds for Batman Begins a year later.
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If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article and would like to speak with someone in confidence, call the BEAT Eating Disorders helpline on 0808 801 0677. Helplines are open 365 days a year from 9am–8pm during the week, and 4pm–8pm on weekends and bank holidays. Alternatively, you can try the one-to-one webchat.