The English actor, 51, is currently working on the upcoming biographical sports drama Madden, depicting the life of football legend John Madden and his involvement in the development of the popular EA video game series titled after himself.
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Nicolas Cage stars as the titular player, with Christian playing Al Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders. Others in the cast include John Mulaney, Kathryn Hahn, Sienna Miller and Shane Gillis.
The film is currently being shot in Atlanta, and new photos from the set show the actor completely transformed into Davis, walking around in a leather jacket, sporting bleached eyebrows, a wig that included a receding hairline and aging makeup.
The star shaved off his prominent beard and went for a more gruff take on the character, pictured walking with a cocked jaw in several glimpses of the set.
Christian, a relative unknown at the time, earned his first bit of adult stardom with the 2000 black comedy American Psycho, playing a New York City investment banker with a taste for the finer things in life — and a bit of murder.
The actor became incredibly cut and muscular for the role, telling Train Mag: "My role for American Psycho was my most restrictive diet-wise. There were no cheat meals. It was all lean protein. No sugars, good fats and low carbs."
The star played Trevor Reznik in 2004's The Machinist, becoming a skin-and-bones version of himself and attracting attention for the first time in his career for his drastic transformation, losing more than 60 lbs for the role.
"It took me a while to even be able to work out properly after The Machinist as well," he told Train Mag, quickly getting back into muscular form for his next role…
Christian played the titular caped crusader in Christopher Nolan's acclaimed trilogy and was immediately back in the gym, not only getting his physique back up, but also his weight.
"At the start I was eating often and I was eating foods very high in calories because I lost 60lb," he noted to train, immediately gorging on pizza and ice cream in particular and eating five meals in a single sitting.
The Welsh-born actor once again slimmed down to play Dicky Eklund in the biographical sports drama The Fighter, not only earning major acclaim and notoriety for his commitment to a role, but also his very first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The process of losing 30 lbs involved "just running like crazy," per The Latino Review. "I could just run for hours on end and I felt really healthy."
For 2013's American Hustle, in which he played con artist Irving Rosenfeld and earned another Oscar nod, Christian went right back up on the weighing scale, gaining 43 lbs for the role (plus going bald), all thanks to some junk food.
"I ate lots of doughnuts, a whole lot of cheeseburgers and whatever I could get my hands on. I literally ate anything that came my way," he told People. "I was about 185 and went up to 228."
To play former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in another Oscar-nominated role (his fourth), Christian once again put on the pounds and even transformed himself facially, thanks to prosthetic work and a bald cap.
His secret behind the weight gain for Vice? "I've just been eating a lot of pies," he quipped to Variety at the time.
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