Losing 23 Kg Was Hell!

The star spills on transforming herself for her heavy new role.

- Adrianna Zappavigna

Charlize Theron is no stranger to body transformations. Who could forget her Oscar- winning performance in Monster? But in her latest film Tully, she’s raised the bar even higher. Gaining a whopping 23kg to play Marlo – an overwhelmed and over-it pregnant mother-of-two – the 42-year-old says it was necessary for the part.

‘I can’t imagine playing this character and not gaining the weight. I gained close to 50 pounds [23kg] for this film,’ she shared. ‘I’ve never really understood people who don’t want to do the transformation. That, to me, is the joy of the job. You get to visit the entire body of someone else.’

Channelling her exhausted, overweight character was a challenge that Charlize embraced. ‘I just I wanted to feel what this woman felt. And I think that was a way for me to get closer to her and get into that mindset.’

Little did she know, her own mental health would be affected in the process. ‘It really messed with my head. I had depression for the first time in my life shooting this film,’ she says. ‘I felt like I was in a dark cloud.