Recently, Netflix dropped Season 4 volume 2 of Stranger Things, which concluded the saga’s fourth installment. This season is different in several ways. From massive-length episodes to a new approach to the story, Stranger Things season 4 felt refreshing and a new take on the series. Besides these, another thing also changed: Jim Hopper’s Body. This season presented to us Jim Hopper in a whole different way and here’s David Harbour explaining how he achieved that.
David Harbour’s Insane Transformation for Stranger Things 4:
In the last episode of Stranger Things season 4 when Jim Hopper and Eleven reunite again, the girl from the woods was stunned by his looks and says that he is not fat while Hopper comments about her hair and we got a lovely reunion there.
David Harbour reportedly lost 60 pounds for his role as Jim Hopper in the fourth installment of Stranger Things. Unlike Jim Hopper in the past seasons, this season demanded him in a more chiseled and thinned body. This Jim Hopper is a prisoner in a remote Russian prison and as a result, it’s evident that there have to be some drastic changes in his physique due to all that starvation and torture.
David Harbour reported that, for his role as the transformed Jim Hopper, he had to follow a strict regime and was also used to fasting. His intermittent fasting and Pilates helped him to shred all that extra fat from his body in eight months and helped him achieve a chiseled prisoner figure. According to him, he never again wants to repeat that and all the fat he lost has also come back:
“I don’t think I’ll ever do that again,” he says. “I have this Santa Claus movie coming out for Universal in December” — Violent Night, which purports to be exactly what it sounds — “and I gained [it all back]. But now, yeah, never again. The prosthetics are too good.”
As per David Harbour, although this superhuman diet made the transformation smooth yet he would not recommend it as there are several cons to it which are also very clearly visible in Stranger Things 4.
What does David Harbour have to say about the transformation?
David Harbour spoke about the transformation that only because it was effective for the role doesn’t mean that it was good for the health. He revealed that the diet caused him to feel hungry during the shoots and he was so mentally and physically affected by it that it also reflected in his performance in the series:
“I was just hungry a lot of the shoot,” and admitting that the huge weight loss likely impacted his performance. The actor said of his 60-pound drop that “I think you’ll see it’s not very good for me, mentally and nutritionally” and the evidence for this claim is easy to find in Stranger Things season 4.
So Despite being comparatively an easier body transformation than some other actors it does take a toll on the mental as well as physical health and Harbour doesn’t deny that it also impacted his performance.
Stranger Things 4 is exclusively streaming on Netflix.
Source: GQ
