Charlize Theron, the acclaimed South African-American actress, won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2004 for her transformative role in Monster, where she portrayed serial killer Aileen Wuornos. That performance required a dramatic weight gain of 30 pounds. She underwent another significant physical transformation for the film Tully, gaining nearly 50 pounds to play a mother of three who has just given birth.
Honest About the Struggles
In a 2018 interview with People, Theron was candid about the less glamorous aspects of gaining and losing weight for her craft. She noted that losing the weight after Monster was relatively easy, but as she aged, shedding excess pounds became nearly impossible. "My body flipped me off quite a bit. It's just way different when you're older," she said.
Theron also revealed that during her weight gain for Tully, she experienced depression for the first time. "I just didn't eat very healthy and a lot of the processed sugars and things just really put me into a terrible depression, and I'd never dealt with anything like that in my life. It totally took me off guard," she shared.
The Weight Gain Process
To gain weight for Tully, Theron ate as much as she could, driven by a sense of responsibility to her character. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she revealed that her main source of fat gain was potato chips, which she called her "drugs of choice." She said, "I ate them everywhere. I had a bag in my car, a bag in the bathroom, a bag in the kitchen, a bag on the counter, a bag in my trailer. Everywhere I went there was just a bag."
Despite the extreme measures, Theron acknowledged the reality for many mothers: "I did this, yes, but mothers do this every single day. They get pregnant, they gain all that weight, and it takes them a year and a half to lose it, and if they don't, they get judged."
The Dark Side of Weight Gain
Reflecting on her journey, Theron highlighted the mental health impact. "The hardest thing for me was I wasn't prepared for how that amount of processed food will affect your mood. I dealt with depression for the first time. What they say about 'what you eat is who you are' is so true… I was lethargic and tired all the time," she said.
After filming, Theron worked hard to return to her original form by adopting a healthy diet and daily exercise. She recalled calling her doctor in frustration, saying, "I think I'm dying because I cannot lose this weight." The doctor's response was blunt: "You're over 40. Calm down. Your metabolism is not what it was." Theron admitted, "Nobody wants to hear that."
Her weight loss journey took about a year and a half, which she described as "a very long journey."
