Movies that seriously damaged actors' bodies

Matt Damon lost around 50 pounds while preparing for the 1996 war drama Courage Under Fire – and he did it in just 100 days. He developed a strict diet of chicken, egg whites, steamed broccoli and baked potatoes, as well as running 12 miles a day.

Doctors told Matt that he had risked permanent heart shrinkage due to the unsupervised diet. He also experienced serious symptoms like dizzy spells and hot flashes.

Ben Foster's preparation to play Lance Armstrong in the 2015 biographical drama The Program included extensive training as well as testing out performance-enhancing drugs under supervision to understand their effects.

In 2015, he opened up to The Guardian about the recovery, explaining that "doping affects your mind. It doesn’t make you feel high" and that, a year on from the film, he had "only just recovered physically".

Tom Hardy put in a serious session at the gym for the 2011 boxing blockbuster Warrior, gaining almost 30 pounds in preparation for the role. But it didn't make him safe from injury, as the star suffered broken ribs, broken toes, a broken finger and several black eyes.

It's not the only time Tom has suffered on-set: Mad Max co-star Charlize Theron accidentally broke his nose in Fury Road due to an ill-timed elbow.

Matthew McConaughey proved he was so much more than a rom-com pretty boy when he lost 47 lbs for an Oscar-winning role as Ron Woodroof in 2013's Dallas Buyers Club.

The actor explained that the energy his body lost during the experience "transferred to the neck up". He described himself as "clinically aware, almost hyper" and that he "needed three hours less sleep a night".

Chris Hemsworth might be best-known as the strong, heavily muscled God of Thunder Thor, but in 2015, he starred as first mate Owen Chase, a 19th-century whaler who is stranded at sea.

For his role, In the Heart of the Sea saw Chris drop 33 lbs and reportedly caused the actor to suffer brain fog, a cross-cast obsession with food and fatigue. While the genuine effects of his dieting cut down on the need for prosthetics, Chris isn't keen to repeat the experience.

Viggo Mortensen's best-loved role cast him as Aragorn, the King of Arnor and Gondor, who takes back his kingdom in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

But one scene rules them all: namely, the legendary sequence in which Viggo kicks a helmet and screams out his grief under the belief that hobbits Merry and Pippin have perished. In reality, the scream was channeling the actor's real pain at having broken two of his toes.

Christian Bale has a reputation as an actor willing to take on all kinds of extreme transformations when it comes to the perfect part. He reportedly survived on a can of tuna and an apple – as well as cigarettes – to lose 65 lbs for The Machinist.

American Psycho also prompted the actor to lose weight, while Batman Begins saw him heading to the gym. For the 2018 comedy, Christian put on weight in order to play US politician Dick Cheney in Vice, telling Vanity Fair: "I've just eaten a lot of pies".

Full Metal Jacket cast actor Vincent D'Onofrio in the role of Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence. For the part, he gained between 70 to 80 lbs for a softer appearance.

He reportedly maintained the weight for just over a year of shooting. But it wasn't without its risks: the weight and physical demands clashed and resulted in the actor tearing ligaments in his knee during an obstacle course.