When it comes to one of the most prolific passers in the game, look no further than Dan Fouts. Fouts' ability to deliver long distant passes with the precision to hit wideouts right in between the numbers was uncanny during his time in the NFL. The 6'3 quarterback from San Francisco, California was easily one of the best quarterbacks throughout the 1970s and '80s. Despite not really making a buzz from recruiters, Fouts accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Oregon where he played from 1970 to 1972. In just three seasons with the Ducks, Fouts was able to break a total of nineteen school records including career passing yardage (5,995).
After coming off of a successful college football career, Dan Fouts was drafted 64th overall in the third round of the 1973 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers where he would play his entire professional career. Fouts would go on to lead the San Diego Chargers to playoff berths for four consecutive seasons (1979-1982) and two AFC Championship games (1980 and 1981) but never made a single Super Bowl appearance. However, the 6x Pro Bowler did rack up a ton of impressive individual feats including leading the NFL in passing yards for four seasons straight (1979-82) and becoming the first quarterback to throw for over 4,000 yards in three consecutive seasons (1979-1981). After the 1987 season, Fouts hung up his cleats for good and now resides in Sisters, Oregon.
Celebrities are no strangers to changing their looks for a role. And in some instances, they have to get pretty extreme. From 500-calorie-a-day diets to drinking pints of ice cream, Actors and actresses know what it takes to change their bodies in preparation for a new film.
Charlize Theron is no stranger to gaining and losing weight for movie roles, as we remember her transformation in Monster. Charlize Theron gained close to 50 pounds for her role as Marlo in Tully. Theron said that “for the first time in my life I was eating so much processed foods and I drank way too much sugar. … I remember having to set my alarm in the middle of the night in order to just maintain the weight.”
You’re used Chris Hemsworth's hulk-like figure in Thor, but In the Heart of the Sea required a totally different diet. The movie required the cast members lose a ton of weight to make their stuck-at-sea plight more believable. Chris Hemsworth said there were days when all he ate was one boiled egg, a couple of crackers, and a celery stick.
Anne Hathaway wanted to get serious for her role in Les Misérables, as she was playing Fantine, a starving prostitute with tuberculosis. So Anne Hathaway went on a diet of “rabbit food” to drop 25 pounds. Hathaway explained her diet was essentially just starving herself, but she didn’t want to give details, as she doesn’t want to encourage anyone to copy her emaciated look. She did note that she “just had to stop eating for a total of 13 days shooting,” however. And at one point, her bones became so frail that she reportedly broke her arm.
Matthew McConaughey's portrayal of Ron Woodruff in Dallas Buyers Club, a man with HIV/AIDS, was spot-on, earning him the title of best actor at the Oscars. But it also required a serious physical transformation. Matthew McConaughey said he lost 38 pounds for the role. During filming, he said he lost a lot of energy from eating so little — and he hit plenty of plateaus along the way. Finally, with a strict diet, he got down to 143 pounds. And while he did cardio to help with the weight loss, he said it was 90% what he was eating and portion size.
Hilary Swank had to put on 23 pounds of pure muscle for her role as a boxer in Million Dollar Baby. The process doesn’t sound easy, however. “I started working out five hours a day — I had to eat 210 grams of protein a day,” Swank said. She also mentioned that she had to consume 60 egg whites per day, and when that proved too difficult, she had to drink them. And to keep the muscle on, she would get up and drink protein shakes in the middle of the night.