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Simon Pegg undergoes radical transformation for new film Inheritance: 'You've gone full Christian Bale'

For the thriller, the Mission: Impossible star has lost 19 pounds and four per cent body fat

Jacob Stolworthy

Saturday 02 March 2019 16:03 GMT

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Mission: Impossible - Fallout Exclusive Interview With Simon Pegg & Vanessa Kirby

Simon Pegg has undergone a drastic body transformation for a role in forthcoming thriller, Inheritance.

The 49-year-old actor’s personal trainer Nick Lower posted photos of the Shaun of the Dead star on Instagram, revealing he’s lost 19 pounds and four per cent body fat over the past six months.

Pegg’s fans were impressed by the photos with some commenting he was channelling Christian Bale in reference to the Batman actor who has undergone several transformations throughout his career.

You can see the results of Pegg’s transformation below.

In 2004, Bale lost 63 pounds for the role of Trevor Reznik in The Machinist, and recently piled on the pounds for Oscar-winning drama Vice, in which he played Dick Cheney.

Pegg’s transformation is for new film Inheritance, which also stars Lily Collins, Kate Mara and Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford.

The biggest body transformations for a role

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1/12The biggest body transformations for a role

The biggest body transformations for a role

Matthew Fox in Alex Cross

Lost star Matthew Fox underwent a staggering transition for the little-seen thriller Alex Cross, shedding 40 pounds for the role while also adding muscle mass. He said his mother “hated it”.

Getty/Lionsgate Films

The biggest body transformations for a role

Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour

While Darkest Hour may have been a run-of-the-mill biopic (with all the requisite fawning scenes of the subject), Gary Oldman’s performance was substantially better than the actual film. The actor spent 200 hours in make-up over the shoot, hoping to emulate the wartime Prime Minister – time well spent, as the Academy awarded the Oldman a best actor Oscar.

AFP/Getty/Universal Pictures

The biggest body transformations for a role

Jared Leto in Dallas Buyer's Club

The 30 Seconds to Mars frontman’s casting caused controversy with his role as an HIV-positive transgender woman in Dallas Buyer’s Club, where he starred opposite Matthew McConaughey. He lost about 40lb to play Rayon, “and then I stopped counting”, Leto said, adding that it changed the way he walked, talked, thought and moved. “It changes you inside and out.”

Getty/Focus Features

The biggest body transformations for a role

Tom Hanks in Pahiladelphia

Before Leto, Tom Hanks underwent dramatic weight loss for his starring roles in Philadelphia and Cast Away, which the actor later revealed may have been a factor in his diagnosis with type 2 diabetes. Since then, he has committed to avoiding roles that require significant weight gain or loss, because of the sheer physical toll it put on his body.

AFP/Getty/TriStar Pictures

The biggest body transformations for a role

Tilda Swinton in Suspiria

While some eagle-eyed film fans (and paparazzi) guessed it relatively early on, it took a while for Suspiria filmmaker Luca Guadagnino and Tilda Swinton to admit that she was the one playing 82-year-old male psychoanalyst Josef Klemperer in the 2018 horror remake. Academy Award-winning makeup artist Mark Coulier gave her a “fake penis and balls” at Swinton’s request: “She had this nice, weighty set of genitalia so that she could feel it dangling between her legs,” he said. Apparently she was so convincing that many of the cast and crew were confused about what this unknown “German” actor was doing on set.

AFP/Getty/Amazon Studios

The biggest body transformations for a role

Leonardo DiCaprio in J Edgar

The prosthetics he wore may have been widely mocked or criticised, but it’s hard to deny that Leonardo DiCaprio’s role as J Edgar involved one of the most drastic physical changes of his career. It took six to seven hours to apply his makeup each day, including fake teeth, a bald cap, latex body pads, and layers of silicone applied to his face.

Getty/Warner Bros

The biggest body transformations for a role

John Travolta in Hairspray

It took John Travolta a long time to say “yes” to the iconic role of Edna Turnblad in the film adaptation of the musical Hairspray. In the end, he was so determined to get it right that he rejected several versions of the padded suit – weighing more than 30lbs – designed for him until he felt the character was suitably voluptuous.

Getty/Rex

The biggest body transformations for a role

John Hurt in The Elephant Man

John Hurt’s portrayal of the deformed John Merrick is one of the most tender and humanistic performances of all time. Of course, you would not know that was John Hurt underneath the layers of make-up and prosthetics if it were not for the credits. So brilliant is the make-up design that the Oscars introduced the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling the year after.

Getty Images

The biggest body transformations for a role

Nicole Kidman in The Hours

Kidman may be almost unrecognizable in her new film Destroyer, but the transformation that most fans recall is for her role as Virginia Woolf in The Hours. The Australian star sat in the makeup chair for three hours every day while artists added a large prosthetic nose to Kidman’s face. She won the Oscar for Best Actress the following year.

Getty/Miramax Films

The biggest body transformations for a role

Cate Blanchett in I'm Not there

Blanchett was one of six actors to play characters inspired by facets of Bob Dylan’s persona. She received critical acclaim for her turn as Jude Quinn, an embodiment of Dylan when he controversially played electric guitar on a rock version of “Maggie’s Farm” to outraged fans at the Newport Folk Festival. “Blanchett’s translucent skin, delicate fingers, slight build, and pleading eyes all suggest the previously invisible vulnerability and fear that fueled Dylan’s lacerating anger,” one review said. “It’s hard to imagine that any male actor… could have lent such rich texture to the role.”

Getty/The Weinstein Company

The biggest body transformations for a role

Christian Bale in Vice

AP/NBC/Annapurna Pictures

The biggest body transformations for a role

Russell Crowe in The Loudest Voice

The actor has transformed himself into the late Fox News founder Roger Ailes for Showtime's upcoming series The Loudest Voice. The show takes its basis from Gabriel Sherman’s bestselling book The Loudest Voice in the Room, alongside his extensive work for New York magazine on the allegations of sexual harassment that led to Ailes’s 2016 departure from Fox News.

Getty/Showtime

The film, due for release later this year, explores what happens when the patriarch of a wealthy and powerful family suddenly passes away, leaving his wife and daughter with a shocking secret inheritance that “threatens to unravel and destroy their lives”.

Pegg will reprise his role of Benji Dunn in two brand new Mission: Impossible films alongside Tom Cruise. The most recent outing, Fallout, was one of the franchise's most critically-acclaimed since Brian De Palma's 1996 original.

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