Frank Grillo Lists The Most Impressive Actor Body Transformations Of All-Time

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In the time it took you to read this, Frank Grillo has already lost a body fat percentage point.

Grillo, whose new movie Boss Level is out March 5, maintains a cartoonish 5% body fat, making him arguably the most in-shape 55-year-old who isn’t named Elizabeth Hurley.

The actor knows a thing or two about the discipline required to achieve a certain physique, so we asked him on our Endless Hustle podcast who’s on-screen commitment has impressed him most.

Ironically, he answered drinking a can of White Girl Rose, which contains 206 calories and 4.5 grams of sugar aka devil powder and is what my wife drinks during The Bachelor. And by my wife I mean me.

“McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club kind of frightened me because he got so skinny. There’s a saying: don’t sacrifice your face for your body. And I don’t think he ever recovered fully. He’s a beautiful guy, but I don’t think he recovered from the amount of weight loss that guy endured for an entire film.”

Thankfully Dallas Buyers Club was shot in just 25 days, sparing McConaughey the agony of maintaining his emaciated physique for a typical 75-125 day shooting period.

The harder the fight, the sweeter the reward.

“Bale is famous for doing it. And I think he said recently he’s kind of done with it.”

In 2019, after losing 70 Dick Cheney pounds to play Ken Miles in Ford v Ferrari, Bale said: “I keep saying I’m done with it, I really think I’m done with it.”

Ladies, find you a man who can do both.

https://twitter.com/GhostPanther/status/1090639186732797952?s=20

Grillo continued:

“And then the other is De Niro in Raging Bull. I mean, he got fat. And that wasn’t the end of the movie. And then he had to lose the weight again.”

If you told me all I had to do to win an Oscar was to get fat and then skinny, I’d just get fat and settle for a nomination.

“It’s incredibly unhealthy. Even when you’re wrestling when you’re younger, you could only drop two weight classes. I would go from 180 to 134. It’s incredibly damaging to your body to fluctuate that much in weight. So it’s a scary proposition.”

Grillo made a solid case for McConaughey, Bale, and De Niro, but if I may I’d like to add one more contenders to the mix.

Listen to our entire fascinating Endless Hustle interview with Grillo below. We chat about:

  • The nuances of Hollywood
  • The genius of Nick Nolte
  • His role in ‘Billions’
  • Stallone’s epic parties
  • His film BOSS LEVEL, out March 5th!

Subscribe and listen to the Endless Hustle below, and follow us on Twitter @Endless__Hustle.

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.