Staff Writer
If you knew who Jared Leto was before, chances are you won’t recognise him in his upcoming film Dallas Buyers Club.
The 30 Seconds to Mars frontman and actor shed an incredible 30-40 pounds (13 – 18kg) for his role as Rayon, a male to female transsexual with the HIV virus that eventually develops into AIDS.
When asked how he dropped such an astonishing amount of weight for the part (see the picture from his Instagram below), Leto explained to TheWrap “I stopped eating. It was 30 or 40 pounds. After a while I stopped counting.” Eventually his weight dropped to a mere 114 pounds (51kg) and Leto reveals the effect it had on his body, “It changes the way you walk, the way you sit, the way you think.”
Being described as “shockingly gaunt but still remarkably beautiful” Leto’s transformation is akin to Matthew McConaughey’s who shed a similar amount of weight for his part in the film as Ron Woodruff, a Texan electrician who also has the HIV virus. In preparation for his role, McConaughey told TheWrap that he stayed home for weeks and carefully monitored what he ate in order to lose the required weight.
Dallas Buyers Club, which made its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this past week, is based off of 25 hours worth of interviews conducted by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack with AIDS activist, Ron Woodruff, in 1992.
After receiving the diagnosis that he has the HIV virus, and being told he only has thirty days to live, Ron Woodruff, the drug taking, women loving, homophobic man, begins to smuggle alternative medicines to the US with the help of transsexual and fellow AIDS patient, Rayon. Woodruff begins taking the FDA approved AIDS treatment AZT, which takes him to the brink of death. So in order to survive, he smuggles in other anti-viral medications from all over the world. When other AIDS patients start seeking out his medications, Ron, together with Rayon, unintentionally create the Dallas Buyers Club, the first of dozens that would form all over the country and provide paying members with these alterative medicines.
The Dallas Buyers Club is scheduled for release on November 1.
Check out the trailer below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8utPuIFVnU&w=420&h=315]
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