When popular actors make the bold choice to alter their appearance for a role, people take notice. Often the effort pays off: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro and Charlize Theron all won Oscars after transforming themselves for their art. Unfortunately, for some stars, the work ends up being in service of a project that doesn’t merit the gamble.
Such is sadly the case for Jake Gyllenhaal, who gave it his all to believably embody a middleweight boxing champion in Southpaw, a drama that’s received mostly negative reviews since first premiering at the Shanghai Film Festival in June (it opens this Friday).
What Gyllenhaal did in preparation for his performance in Southpaw is astonishing. Coming off of playing an emaciated and manic photographer in Nightcrawler, the Oscar-nominee for Brokeback Mountain packed on muscle to play a fighter at the end of his rope following a devastating loss. There’s no denying he looks the part in Southpaw. It’s just a shame the hackneyed script from Sons of Anarchy writer Kurt Sutter, and the uninspired direction from Training Day director Antoine Fuqua, don’t do the actor’s intense performance justice.
Gyllenhaal can console himself in knowing that he’s not alone – the below actors have suffered similar fates after undergoing crazy transformations for mediocre movies.
Jared Leto, Chapter 27
The 30 Seconds to Mars frontman made a triumphant return to acting by shedding a lot of weight to credibly embody an HIV-positive trans woman in 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club. He was awarded an Oscar for his efforts. For the 2007 release of Chapter 27, Leto went the opposite route, gaining 60lb for his role as John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman. Leto received decent reviews for his performance but the film, from first-time writer/director JP Schaefer, was a dud with critics.
50 Cent, All Things Fall Apart
50 Cent, who stars alongside Gyllenhaal as a smarmy sports manager in Southpaw, did the opposite of what his co-star did for the 2011 drama All Things Fall Apart, losing 54lb to play a football player diagnosed with cancer. Mario Van Peeble’s drama received attention before opening, for the rapper’s extreme weight loss and a legal battle concerning the film’s original title, Things Fall Apart. The project died a quick death once word got out that the film was no good.
Russell Crowe, Body of Lies
Eight years after piling on muscle for Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning epic Gladiator, Russell Crowe proved he’s just as talented at packing on fat, once again for Scott. For the director’s tepidly received espionage thriller, Body of Lies, the Australian actor added 63lb to his frame to play a CIA agent, well past his prime, who teams up with a younger and much leaner operative (Leonardo DiCaprio) to bring down a major terrorist leader.
Mark Wahlberg, Pain & Gain
Former Calvin Klein underwear model Mark Wahlberg is better known for his chiseled physique than his acting skills. His musclebound frame is frequently on display in his films, but in Michael Bay’s 2013 dark comedy Pain & Gain, his body takes center stage. For the film, based on a true story, Wahlberg hulked it up to play a Florida bodybuilder and manager of gym who extorts on the side to get ahead. Bulging at 212lb, Wahlberg looked the part, but his enhanced muscles were in the service of a tonally incoherent mess of a “comedy” that proves how woefully inept Bay is at satire.
Matthew Fox, Alex Cross
Former Lost star Matthew Fox was barely recognizable opposite Tyler Perry in the 2012 action flick Alex Cross, after losing 44lb to play a terrifyingly lean serial killer. Unfortunately for Fox, watching him in this tepid thriller that tried and failed to make Perry into an action star.
Renee Zellweger, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Renee Zellweger deservedly earned an Oscar nomination for her revelatory comic turn as the titular lovable mess in 2001’s hit romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary. Just a year later, she shed the pounds gained for that project to earn a second nomination for Chicago, only to yoyo again to embody Jones for 2004’s ill-fated sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Zellweger should have kept off the weight and not signed on to the follow-up that lacked any of the charm that made the original such a winner.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Southpaw doesn’t mark the first time we’ve seen the Brokeback Mountain actor pack on muscle for a role. He was memorably jacked in both Jarhead and his first major bid at blockbuster-level stardom, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – Jarhead being the unquestionably more worthy film of the two. Prince of Persia, a video game adaptation, demanded that the actor add on mass to believably embody a young rogue prince, and while his physique impressed, the film failed to win over audiences, resulting in a box-office flop for Disney (it failed to make $100m in the US, on a budget of $200m).
