Matt Damon is a body role model. The actor has set an intense workout routine for his roles in movies like Jason Bourne, The Martian, The Great Wall, and many more.
But there was a 1996 film role (Courage Under Fire) that nearly destroyed his health after he dropped 60lbs (because he only ate chicken breast).
His extreme physical transformation, in such a short amount of time, resulted in a risk of permanent shrinking of his heart. Damon even had to take medication to repair the harm in his adrenal gland.
Matt Damon Could Have Shrunk His Heart Permanently Because of His Extreme Physical Transformation
Matt Damon started at 190lbs but got down to 139lbs for the movie. Speaking about his extreme weight loss, the actor revealed in Reddit’s Ask Me Anything that he “had to run about 13 miles a day, which wasn’t even the hard part. The hard part was the diet.”
The Hollywood actor added that he only “ate chicken breast” because he didn’t have a chef at that time, so he just made what he felt like — he just made it up, which was extremely challenging.
Damon said he “had to be thin and went on an unsupervised diet which could have killed” him. The Air actor also admitted that the diet didn’t do him any good because he started to feel the ill effects of the diet that lacked many vitamins and minerals. He shared:
“I didn’t have to act at all – I was a wreck. I was getting dizzy spells and hot flashes. I didn’t say anything to anyone for a while because I was afraid I might be really ill.”
He himself affirmed that he went too far and that he would never consider doing this ever again.
Matt Damon Also Advised Chris Hemsworth to Not Follow Such an Extreme Regime For His Role
Learning from his own experience, Matt Damon advised Chris Hemsworth when he was preparing for his character as a shipwrecked sailor in The Heart Of the Sea.
He told the 12 Strong star not to follow the same dangerous diet he used to lose weight for Courage Under Fire. He warned Hemsworth by saying — “Look, I had no education then. It was basically eating nothing for four months.”
Damon told him that there are better ways to lose weight and that Hemsworth should seek the advice of a nutritionist before proceeding with everything all by himself.
