It’s no secret that film stars go through a lot to get into the perfect shape that their role demand from them. From a skinny person to a jacked Greek God, film stars go through a lot of training and diet restrictions to reach these goals. With these facts, it’s also no secret that all this takes a huge toll on the actor’s health, both physically and mentally, so much so that the individual might get severely ill from the drastic transformation to their bodies.
It’s a thing of admiration and respect when any normal individual observes this kind of determination, but more often than never, it’s not such a pleasant experience for the actor who goes through the process.
Tom Holland, the actor who is famously known for portraying Spider-Man in the MCU, recalls a similar experience that he had when he was prepping for a film. It was so stressful for him that he decided never to do this again for any role.
Tom Holland’s Extreme Transformation For Cherry
When it comes to body transformations, Tom Holland is no stranger to hard work and discipline, working hard for his role in Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man series and the Avengers films to get into the peak teenage shape that Peter Parker rocks as the amazing web-slinger. But during the filming of his then-upcoming film Cherry, Holland didn’t realize that this next body transformation of his was going to be a little different from his prior endeavors.
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Based on the autobiographical novel Cherry by Nico Walker, the movie tells the story of the titular character, played by Holland, who enlists in the army, and suffers from PTSD thanks to his war experiences overseas. Cherry returns home struggling with his mental health and turns to opioids for relief. That, in turn, starts a vicious cycle of addiction that leads Cherry to become a small-time crook, robbing banks to feed his habit.
The role required here from Holland was to depict a drug-addicted individual that looks very thin and pale, a side effect of excessive drug abuse for a prolonged period. This was the role that demanded Tom Holland to lose all the gains that he had acquired during his term at Marvel Studios as Spider-Man, and he had to do it ASAP! So, Holland set out yet again to transform his body, but he soon realized that losing 30 pounds of weight was more complex than gaining it.
“I had to lose a lot of weight for Cherry. And I don’t think I would ever do that again. I lost around 27lbs by running in a bin bag every day… It was awful. Truly. It was only about ten weeks out of shooting that I realized what I was getting into and what I need to do to transform into the role. So I sat down with my trainer, George Ashwell, and he told me, ‘Right, you need to eat only 500 calories a day and run ten miles. Go.’ Great.”
The actor further added,
“It was brutal. And then bulking up, going from a drug addict to shooting scenes as a marine? I got very sick. And it’s changed my relationship with food completely. I think I would find it very difficult to find a role that would warrant that sort of abuse on my body again.”
This torturous weight loss treatment was crucial to Tom Holland’s role in Cherry. Joe Russo, who was the film’s co-director, said that Holland had to lose this weight drastically because Cherry could only have worked if Holland was able to make the audiences empathize with his character’s tortured journey.
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The Hardships Of Extreme Body Transformations!
Well, it may seem extremely aspirational and motivating to see your favorite film star’s transformation journey, but it is not always easy for the actors themselves to through such strict diet restrictions and workout regimes. Even with all the professional guidance in the world at their disposal, the actors have to go through Hell to get in the required shape that their role asks them. This most of the time brings these stars down to their knees with absolute physical and mental fatigue that might even scar them for the rest of their lives.
Thus, whenever you see your favorite star, or any other performer going through something similar to this, give them your utmost respect, and know that they have sacrificed a lot to give you the best performance ever.
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Cherry, now streaming on Apple TV
Source: Movieweb
