50 Cent Drops Weight for Role

What you see above is not the 50 Cent we are used to seeing. The Grammy award winning rapper is certainly a shell of his former self. Usually, 50 weighs in at a muscular 215lbs but in the picture he’s around 160 lbs. Virtually, unrecognizable to me and his millions of fans 50 Cent lost all that weight for a movie called Things Fall Apart. The story centers around a football star who is diagnosed with cancer. The film also co-stars Ray Liotta. Now I’ve never been a big fan of 50 Cent the actor. I like some of his music but he has never really come across well on the silver screen. Now that I’m seeing such dedication to a role my perception has changed a bit. I can honestly say that I’m intrigued to see this movie now.

This dramatic lose of weight is obviously not the first we’ve seen. More well accomplished and talented actors have done so before 50. Robert DeNiro did it for Raging Bull (1980). He gained 60lbs for his role as boxer Jake LaMotta. Matt Damon did the transformation two separate times. The first was for Courage Under Fire (1996) where Damon played an heroin ex-military addict and lost 40lbs to get into character. His second time was just last year in The Informant where he put on 30lbs. Renee Zellweger also did it for both Bridget Jones films (2001 &2 2004) gaining 25lbs. Zellweger was much more of shock to people since she’s a woman and she typically has the figure of a stick. However, she pulled it off beautifully and no one would have ever known she put on weight. The same can be said for Charlize Theron in her portrayal as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster (2003). Theron gained 30lbs for her role and won an Oscar. Tom Hanks packed on 50lbs for Cast Away (2000). His goal was to be as pudgy as possible. Production was then stopped for a whole year so he could lose the weight and grow out his hair and beard! Finally, the most drastic weight loss an actor put his body through was Christian Bale for The Machinist (2004). Bale shrunk down to a scrawny 110lbs from 173lbs. If you look at IMDB under the trivia section for the film is says that Bale wanted to go to 100lbs, but producers would not let him do it out of fear for his health. What’s even more insane is that Bale put all that weight back on for Batman Begins in 2005 and if you saw that movie you know he was all muscle. According to IMDB, Bale’s 63lb weight loss is the most anyone has ever done.

So what makes these actors do such crazy things to their bodies? Is it dedication? Money? Passion? My guess it’s a combination of all three with dedication at the lead. However, money isn’t even a factor in some cases. The Machinist was by no means a blockbuster movie. Barely anyone saw it and I don’t think Bale made that much money from it. However, it’s an amazing movie. When an actor goes to such extremes you can’t help but become mesmerized by what you see. The connection between actor and the audience is much deeper than usual. Every time I watch Cast Away I find myself feeling so sad for Tom Hank’s character. Overall, I think that’s what each actor goes for. They want the audience to feel the pain and suffering of the character.

If you would like to read the entire article go to the link below. Filming has wrapped on Things Fall Apart and 50 has now begun going back to his former self.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/pet-rock-1.811972/50-cent-s-dramatic-weight-loss-1.1954940