Brett Favre has never seen a football that he wasn't willing to throw in the midst of any defense. Favre was relentlessly brave when it came to dropping back and letting it fly downfield. So much that Favre holds the NFL record for most career interceptions. While that might appear negative mark on his legacy, Favre also is one of the most successful and studied quarterbacks of all-time. The 6'2 quarterback hailing from Gulfport, Mississippi accepted a scholarship offer to play in his home state at the University of Southern Mississippi. Originally, the coaching staff pressured Favre to play defensive back but proved he was worth the starting quarterback position after being labeled as the seventh-string quarterback. In four seasons as a Southern Miss Golden Eagle, Favre shattered most of the team's quarterback records with a total of 7,695 passing yards, 52 touchdowns, and an overall quarterback rating of 116.6.
Despite having a legendary collegiate football career, Favre was selected 33rd overall in the second round of the 1991 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons. In a single season with Atlanta, Favre only took four pass attempts, two of which were intercepted. The following season, Favre made his way to the Green Bay Packers where he would play his best football for the next decade in a half. In the 1993 season, Favre led the Packers to their first postseason since 1982. After becoming the main play-caller, Favre led the Packers to a total of eleven playoff berths, eight division championships, five NFC Championship games, and two Super Bowl appearances (XXXI and XXXII). The 11x Pro Bowler led the Packers to a championship over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. Favre also is the only player to have won three straight MVPs (1995-1997) and held the all-time leading records for passing yards, passing touchdowns, and quarterback wins upon his retirement in January 2011. Those records have since then been broken but Favre will forever be known as one of the blueprints for the modern-day quarterback.
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.