What Is the Secret behind Christian Bale’s Weight Loss for His Role in Thor: Love and Thunder?

Christian Bale, who has been lauded for his role of Gorr in Thor: Love and Thunder, has often covered both sides of the extreme in movies. From eating pie after pie for gaining weight to only having one apple for an entire day, Bale has done it all for his movie roles.

Losing a great amount of weight for The Machinist, getting fit for Batman and gaining a good amount of weight for the American Hustle are a few examples of the drastic physical transformation Bale has gone through. The one thing that stays constant is that Bale always embraces his character entirely, and the same goes for Thor: Love and Thunder too.

To play the villain in this new Marvel movie, Bale went through a major physical transformation to adapt to the character Gorr – the God Butcher. So, let’s understand more about the technique the actor adopted for his drastic physical transformation.

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Christian Bale’s Weight Loss in Thor: Love and Thunder

Christian Bale has been extremely dedicated to his profession in the last 20 years, which can be seen in both his acting and the way how he prepares for his role. His intense mental and physical dedication to his role makes him one of the most versatile and impressive actors in Hollywood.

Bale hinted that for Thor: Love and Thunder, he did not go high in the gym. He said that there was no reason to build muscle for the role, as he did not want the audience and media to compare his physique to that of Chris Hemsworth.

As such, Bale mostly focused on restricting his calorie intake throughout the day to help him lose weight and play the character of Gorr. Usually, for weight loss, he incorporates the starvation diet into his lifestyle. That means restricting the consumption of calories and consuming foods such as apples, a tin of tuna and black coffee. For instance, for "The Machinist", Bale consumed less than 500 calories a day.

Christian Bale added that weight loss for his upcoming Marvel movie has been comparatively easy, as he has already done it numerous times. He was already very skinny for the movie that he finished just before jumping into Thor: Love and Thunder.

Meanwhile, he went through several comic books featuring Gorr to prepare for his role in Thor: Love and Thunder. Although Gorr's comic book character was quite muscular, it was not possible for Bale to achieve that due to a gap of less than a week between the shooting of the two movies. So, the director and character focused more on the supernatural powers of the Gorr rather than the physique.

Bale also made a different transformation for the role by shaving his head along while wearing gray and white paint. His co-star Natalie Portman praised Christian Bale for his ability to incorporate the character he played.

Apart from Bale, his other stars such as Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman can also be seen with amazing body transformation. While Portman started training ten months before the movie for stronger arms, Hemsworth adopted the right food, proper workout and consistency to achieve Thor’s body.

After 20 years of a drastic rollercoaster of physical transformations, Christian Bale, in an interview, said that he wants to put his body transformation behind him, as it is starting to affect his overall health. The actor even considers that any more physical transformations might affect his mortality.

Bale worries that this kind of drastic physical transformation might become a regular conversation or a marker of commitment to the profession. He added that it should be an anomaly, and people should be more focused on the essence of the character rather than their physique.

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Bottom Line

Throughout his career, Christian Bale has gone through a rollercoaster of body transformations.

It's no secret that to achieve these transformations, he has gone through a proper amalgamation of workout regime and nutritional diet. However, for the movie Thor: Love and Thunder, Bale did not go too hard in the gym due to time restrictions and to avoid comparisons with Chris Hemsworth.

This transformation tends to be comparatively safer for the actors and actresses, as they undergo it under the guidance of nutrition experts and fitness professionals. However, it's absolutely dangerous to carry out such drastic changes without professional advice. Crash diets and workouts also tend to be harmful in the long run.

If you're looking for quick weight loss, steer towards healthy and sustainable methods rather than a crash diet and workout.