Matthew McConaughey Starves Himself, Loses 30 Pounds To Play AIDS Patient
Matthew McConaughey is no longer the buff actor viewers saw in "Magic Mike."
Instead, he has become much skinnier, 30 pounds to be exact, and admitted to starving himself for an upcoming movie role in which he plays an AIDS patient who turns to experimental HIV drugs for help in the mid-1980s.
The 43-year-old was spotted on Friday catching a flight from Los Angeles to New Orleans, where his new film "The Dallas Buyer's Club" began shooting on Sunday, according to ABC. The actor looked shockingly skinny and earlier he admitted to Larry King that in order to shed the necessary pounds for his new role in the film, he resorted to starving himself.
"It's a bit of a spiritual cleanse, mental cleanse. [I'm] drinking a lot of tea," he said. "It takes a while for your body to understand that it has to feed off itself, and that you're not going to give it something else from the outside. I should not look healthy by the time I'm doing this."
"The Dallas Buyer's Club" also stars Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner. The film is "loosely-based" on the true-life story of Ron Woodroof, a druggie, womanizer who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1986 and given thirty days to live, according to IMDb. He started taking AZT, the only legal drug available in the U.S for his condition, but that brought him only closer to death.
He then resorted to smuggling anti-viral medications into the U.S. and eventually other AIDS patients wanted him to share some of his drugs. With that, the Dallas Buyers Club was created, providing paying members alternative treatments smuggled in from different countries. Of course with its growing popularity, the FDA and pharmaceutical companies started to take action and the battle between the two fronts began. The film is expected to come out in 2013.
