Actors Who Gained Weight For Roles

Anyone who saw the perfect washboard abs Ryan Gosling displayed as Ken in «Barbie» might be shocked to learn he isn’t always in perfect shape. In fact, he’s twice put on weight to play characters in movies — although only one of them actually made it to the big screen.

When Gosling was originally cast in Peter Jackson’s «The Lovely Bones,» the 29-year-old actor thought he looked too young to play a bereaved father seeking revenge for his daughter’s murder. So, as he revealed on The Hollywood Reporter’s annual actors roundtable, he added 60 pounds to his waistline by gulping down melted Häagen-Dazs. When Gosling showed up on set, Jackson was stunned. «We had a different idea of how the character should look,» Gosling said. «I really believed he should be 210 pounds.» His director disagreed, and he was eventually replaced by Mark Wahlberg. «We didn’t talk very much during the preproduction process, which was the problem,» Gosling added. «I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong. Then I was fat and unemployed.»

Luckily, Gosling was able to put that waistline to good use for Derek Cianfrance’s «Blue Valentine,» a marital drama co-starring Michelle Williams. According to NDTV, the two actually competed against each other to see who could gain the most weight before filming, with Williams edging Gosling out by a pound.