Mark Wahlberg gained 30 pounds for his latest movie by eating up to 8 meals a day made up of eggs, bacon, and steak
- Wahlberg told Insider how he gained 30 pounds for his new movie "Father Stu."
- He ate up to eight meals a day, consisting of eggs, bacon, and steak.
Mark Wahlberg is the latest actor to transform his body for a role.
In "Father Stu," in which the Oscar-nominee plays a boxer-turned-priest, he gained 30 pounds to portray Stuart Long towards the end of his life when he had a rare autoimmune disease called inclusion body myositis.
"The weight gain was bad," Wahlberg told Insider. "It isn't something I would want to jump at doing again."
To gain weight, the actor started with an initial two-week 7,000-calorie-a-day diet plan. Then during the last four weeks, he upped his intake to 11,000 calories a day.
Wahlberg explained he gained weight by eating foods high in protein.
"A dozen eggs, dozen pieces of bacon, two bowls of white rice, a cup of olive oil to start the morning," he said. "More eggs, a porterhouse steak. That's seven to eight meals a day of this."
"Towards the end, it's a lot of starches and sodium on top of the protein to get that bloated look," Wahlberg added.
For six years, Wahlberg had been so driven to tell the story of Father Stu that he self-financed the movie. He said he spent "millions and millions of dollars" to get it made.
"This was so much more important than just doing the actor 'Raging Bull' thing," Wahlberg said, referring to the famous Martin Scorsese movie in which its star Robert De Niro gained weight to play a boxer past his prime.
"Everything about Stu was predicated on his physicality. To see him lose that but to gain the strength of a thousand men spiritually, it was unbelievable. I wanted the audience to see that and understand it," he explained.
"Father Stu," also starring Mel Gibson and Malcolm McDowell, is currently playing in theaters.