He is a yoga fanatic acknowledged as having one of the buffest bodies in Hollywood.
So when Matthew McConaughey was pictured looking deathly skinny and emaciated last year his fans were shocked.
The beefy actor had lost more than three stone – a quarter of his body mass – in a few short months for his role as an AIDS sufferer in new movie Dallas Buyers Club.
And, as the Texas-born star
now reveals, he achieved the extreme weight loss on little-to-no food – making him bad-tempered, not to mention ravenous.
now reveals, he achieved the extreme weight loss on little-to-no food – making him bad-tempered, not to mention ravenous.
“It was tough going, I’m not going to lie,” admits the 43-year-old. “The dieting was pretty hardcore. I was losing 7lb every week.”
His calorie intake was frighteningly small with no actual meals.
“I’d have a Diet Coke, two egg whites in the morning, a piece of chicken, then another Diet Coke. That was rough.
"I got down to nine-and-a-half stone and I was always hungry, and irritable.
“My body resembled a little baby bird with its mouth open, crying ‘Feed me, feed me’ and you realise momma bird ain’t going to feed you. It’s hard.”
The 6ft tall actor, who weighed a muscular 13-and-a-half stone and trained by lifting and holding up weights for 15 minutes at a time, has spoken previously about the gruelling die
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.”
The lack of nutrition also had an effect on his mind, which he described as a “spiritual and mental cleanse”.
“The most difficult part for me, the day seemed longer,” he says. “I basically cut out meal times, which is part of our daily existence so I felt like I had so much more time on my hands.
“Plus we spend so much time contemplating what we’re going to eat for lunch, when we’re going to eat it. It was a weird departure, but an education nonetheless.”
However, by January, a mere two months after filming wrapped on the flick, he had already regained two stone and was even displaying bulging biceps while shooting a Steven Spielberg TV series – thanks to a healthy diet of fish, asparagus, eggs, nuts and sweet potatoes.
In The Dallas Buyers Club, McConaughey plays Ron Woodroof who was diagnosed with Aids in 1986 and given just six months to live.
But instead of accepting the death sentence, he created a business, sourcing and smuggling non-FDA-approved medication, experimental and alternative drugs for sufferers.
“It’s a really interesting, arresting character and story,” Matthew nods.
“I’ve been trying to get it made for the past four years so it’s been a labour of love and I’m really happy how it’s turned out.
"It’s an important project for me.
“Ron Woodroof was an incredible man, a contradiction in his own terms who took on a death sentence and made a difference that has reverberated around the medical industry and the world. His story has fascinated me for years.”
It’s a far cry from some of the Hollywood hunk’s previous roles.
He first shot to fame in the film adaptation of John Grisham’s A Time To Kill.
A few years later, he was arrested at home in Austin, Texas, and charged with possession of marijuana when police were called for a noise complaint. Matthew was found dancing naked, playing the bongos.
He then slipped into the role of Hollywood heart-throb in rom-coms such as How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and The Wedding Planner.
Recently he’s chosen more challenging fare, including new gritty flick Mud, where he plays a charismatic outlaw, The Paperboy and Killer Joe.
He also stars in comedy Bernie, out today, with Jack Black.
But he claims he has not changed paths in a desperate bid to win an Oscar.
“If I planned my career out that way, I would have made far different choices in the past,” he says, seeming irritated. “Buyers Club is a passion project for me – it’s about Ron’s story, not about what I can get out of it.”
Matthew, who married Brazilian model Camila Alves last June, acknowledges he has changed direction but says he would consider another rom-com.
“I would never say I was done but sometimes I felt less challenged than I should have and I think you need a healthy amount of pressure to progress. I don’t think I’ll go back there unless I find something that really turns me on.
“I kept getting scripts that I’d done over and over and over,” he complains. “It was nothing new. Comedy, boy meets girl, hilarity ensues etc. Nothing was new.
“So I just sat back, spent time with the family, took some time out to get a little clarity. I was OK for money, paying the rent, putting bread on the table.
“So I did that and what happened – I started to get different call for different types of scripts.”
Now a dad of three, Levi, four, Vida, three, and four-month-old Livingston, he’s bringing the whole McConaughey clan on his next job.
He says: “We’ll pack them all into the trailer and head off for a couple of months. I just feel now we’re like this oasis in the storm, this homely little unit, and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier with my life.”
It helps that he enjoys spending time in different countries – particularly the UK, where he says he finds the British obsession with sunshine funny.
“I remember I was staying at a hotel right on the edge of Hyde Park and it was during the summer when you folks had maybe a couple days of sunshine.
"That’s actually what I love about London, soon as the ball of fire comes out, y’all hop out straight away, like lizards to a rock,” he chuckles.
He also became fascinated with the soapbox at Speakers’ Corner. “I loved how anytime you went down there, you could find any kind of individual speaking passionately about politics, religion, the end of the world.
“It became like this addiction, anytime I had a couple hours off, I’d skip down there, park myself on a bench and take it all in. I was really tempted to get up there but I was a bit too chicken.”
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