Orlando Bloom got candid about the difficulties that came with restricting food and water to achieve extreme physical transformation for his recent role in The Cut.
Bloom changed his body for the role
The 48-year-old actor had to diet to undergo changes in his appearance as he plays an ex-boxing champion who ‘trains for redemption’ before ‘spiraling’ when ‘obsession takes hold’, per the thriller’s trailer.
It was a taxing role for Bloom
In an interview published on Monday, August 11, Bloom told People about the ‘challenge’ of changing his body for the role.
He admitted that although he was ready to take it on, he hadn’t anticipated how mentally taxing it would turn out to be.
He experienced ‘paranoia and anxiety’
“What I hadn’t expected and was surprised by was the mental toll that this kind of intense discipline takes,” Bloom shared.
“The paranoia and anxiety were very real and disturbing, caused by the lack of sleep — turns out you can’t sleep when you’re hungry.”
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He became obsessed with food
Bloom shared that one side effect to the diet was that he experienced ‘obsessive thoughts of food’ which came from restricting his water intake with the aim of getting to his ‘lowest weight’.
Bloom was ‘dreaming’ of what he’d eat
“Water restriction to get to my lowest weight for the final scenes led to obsessive thoughts of food, dreaming of what I could eat when finally off a diet of tuna and cucumber,” he said.
Bloom warned against doing this
The actor added that this extreme diet is ‘definitely not something to try at home.’
In a different interview with the magazine last year, Bloom admitted that he ‘thought I was gonna die’ from the diet that came with his role in The Cut.
He had weekly supervision
“I was supervised weekly and had my blood work monitored by an expert nutritionist, Phillip Goglia, who helped me lose 30 pounds in approximately three months,” Bloom said at the time.
“Ultimately, this is a story about the struggles we all face and what it takes to battle our internal demons and find self-acceptance.”