It’s no secret that Matthew McConaughey lost a tremendous amount of weight to prepare for his role as an AIDS patient in the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club.
The actor underwent a dramatic transformation that saw him shed nearly 50lbs in preparation for the role, which he said was necessary in order to authentically depict someone suffering from stage 4 HIV.
But although the move paid off from a professional standpoint - with the film sweeping the Oscars and netting McConaughey an Academy Award for Best Actor in the process - the actor admits his body has never fully recovered, despite saying he did not "torture" himself in preparation for the role.
In a 2020 interview with Joe Rogan, McConaughey shed some light on his decision to undergo such a drastic transformation and how he’s still dealing with the after-effects of that decision all these years later.
“…I was not torturing myself, I was militant,” McConaughey said in response to a question from Rogan.
“The hardest part was making the damn choice. It was my responsibility. If I looked like I do now, playing Ron Woodruff in Dallas Buyers Club, you are out of the movie in the first frame. ‘Oh bulls**t, he's not stage 4 HIV. I’m out.’
“What’s my job? I had to lose the weight,” he added.
As to his actual process, McConaughey said consistency was the key to dropping the extra weight.
“Once I made my mind up, I did the smart thing,” he said.
“I gave myself five months. I got on a diet where I’d have my tapioca pudding or whatever, three eggs—egg whites in the morning. Five ounces of fish, cup of vegetables for lunch, five ounces of fish, cup of vegetables for dinner. As much wine as I wanted to drink.
“I lost 2.5 pounds a week, like clockwork, no exercise … it didn’t matter if I was going to the treadmill and burning 2,000 calories a day or not—2.5 pounds a week. Clockwork.”
“I’m still coming back from that,” he added with a grin.
But as to the physical effects of the weight loss, McConaughey said it took him a long time to recover from his new regime because after a while his body effectively started to ‘eat itself’, creating a self-sustaining cycle that proved difficult to break.
“I did learn this- I had to come back very slowly …. I still got a couple of things on my back here around the waist, so I’m like where’d that come from, and what’s that still doing hanging around?”
Even though he says he’s since reached his ‘original’ weight of 188 lbs again, the drastic changes he made along the way has permanently altered his body and appearance in ways he’s still getting used to.
When asked by Rogan if the weight loss took a bigger toll on his health than he anticipated, McConaughey replied: “Sure. I would say, you know, even, you know, neck and things like that.
“You know, your neck and bone structure’s the same… But yeah, although it didn’t hurt, I think I stretched my body…”
Although traditionally reserved for method actors like McConaughey and Chrisitan Bale, the process of actors transforming their bodies has become more common in recent years due to the proliferation of superhero films.
Most of the time, this means actors simply eat a lot of meat and vegetables and stay away from carbs- although having millions of dollars and access to the best personal trainers in Hollywood doesn’t hurt either.