Acting isn't as easy as we think. Rarely is it the case that an actor rocks up to set, does their 9-5 and fucks off home. Major roles require some serious commitment and call for way more than mental preparations. To truly get into character, aesthetics have to be taken into account in order for an actor to resemble the person they are trying to portray. Sometime they are asked to lose (or gain) a ridiculous amount of weight in a short amount of time. It's not always pretty!
Anna Hathaway had to lose a whopping 25lbs for her role in Les Miserables and said;
Quote:"I was on a starvation diet to look like I was near death in a film... but I went at it with a plan and I had a guide, a nutritionist kind of helped me with it. I just had to stop eating for a total of 13 days shooting."