A Shell of a Man
Hollow hunk: Matthew McConaughey takes his Oscar bid too far with crazy weightloss
Texas heartthrob Matthew McConaughey made headlines earlier this summer when, halfway to a 30-pound weight-loss goal for an upcoming movie role, fans were already calling the actor slim.
But that is nothing compared to how thin he looks now. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone movie critic Peter Travers on ABCNews.com, the difference is immediately apparent — and just as quickly put out of mind. Hey, actors lose weight for movies all the time.
"It takes a while for your body to understand that it has to feed off of itself, and that you're not going to give it something else from the outside," McConaughey told Larry King.
And then, suddenly, in the middle of one of McConaughey's tangential rants, you realize that his signature, self-assured Southern drawl is coming out of the mouth of a foreign face with too-big teeth and a scraggly beard. It really is shocking. McConaughey's vest is too big, and his legs are too thin — a far cry from the toned figure he cut in Magic Mike.
The Austin-based actor goes on to describe his role in The Dallas Buyer's Club, which begins filming in September. Ron Woodroof is an AIDS-stricken cowboy with a death sentence who makes an empire of smuggling and selling life-saving, off-the-market HIV drugs in the '80s.
It's the type of role that inspires Oscars — down to the self-sacrifice.
McConaughey told Larry King that he's drinking a lot of tea and considering it "a bit of a spiritual cleanse, mental cleanse."
"It takes a while for your body to understand that it has to feed off of itself, and that you're not going to give it something else from the outside," he said. "I should not look healthy by the time I'm doing this."