Oscar Nominations 2025: Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Angelina Jolie and More Snubs and Surprises
The road to the Oscars is no joke—just ask these nominees who took great lengths to transform themselves for a role.
In fact, 2024 Academy Award Best Actor winner Cillian Murphy said he lost “quite a bit of weight” in order to play the titular theoretical physicist in Oppenheimer.
“Oppenheimer had a very distinct physicality and silhouette, which I wanted to get right,” he explained in a 2023 interview with the New York Times. “He was very slim, almost emaciated, existed on martinis and cigarettes.”
So much so, costar Emily Blunt joked that Murphy resorted to eating “an almond everyday” in order to slim down.
But extreme weight loss doesn’t always guarantee Oscars gold. For Charlize Theron, putting on 30 pounds helped her Oscar-winning performance as real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s Monster.
However, it was a feat she’ll likely not repeat due to her metabolism.
“I will never, ever do a movie again and say, ‘Yeah, I’ll gain 40 pounds,'” she told Allure in 2023. “I will never do it again because you can’t take it off.”
