<p id=”par-1_29″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/mark-wahlberg/”>Actor</a> Mark Wahlberg is used to <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/mark-wahlberg-father-stu-diet-involved-7000-calories-8-meals-day.html/”>changing his weight</a> for film roles. But for <em>The Gambler</em>, he went to extreme lengths to shed more pounds than he ever had.</p>
<h2 id=”h-michael-bay-told-mark-wahlberg-that-he-looked-like-crap-when-he-lost-so-much-weight”>Michael Bay told Mark Wahlberg that he looked like crap when he lost so much weight</h2>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” width=”1200″ height=”800″ src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg?strip=all&quality=89″ alt=”Mark Wahlberg posing while wearing a suit at ‘The Golden Boy’ premiere.” class=”wp-image-3590219″ srcset=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg 1200w, https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg?w=150&h=100 150w, https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg?w=640&h=427 640w, https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg?w=768&h=512 768w, https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg?w=1024&h=683 1024w, https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg?w=525&h=350 525w, https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg?w=254&h=169 254w, https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg?w=200&h=133 200w, https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg?w=761&h=507 761w, https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mark-Wahlberg-Weight.jpg?w=90&h=60 90w” sizes=”(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px”><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Mark Wahlberg | Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-2_62″>Wahlberg became the face of Michael Bay’s later <em>Transformers </em>movies <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/shia-labeouf-revealed-wasnt-script-transformers-2.html/”>after Shia LaBeouf</a> left the franchise. But in one of the sequels, Wahlberg didn’t look like the action star that many were familiar with. He lost a staggering amount of weight to star in the feature film <em>The Gambler</em>, losing 60 pounds for the movie. It was the thinnest he’d ever been.</p>
<p id=”par-3_63″>”I went from 197 to – the lightest I’d ever been in a movie <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/mark-wahlberg-regretted-boogie-nights.html/”>was in <em>Boogie Nights</em></a>, I was 138 – so I wanted to beat that,” Wahlberg once said according to <a href=”https://www.contactmusic.com/mark-wahlberg/news/mark-wahlberg-s-lips-turned-blue-after-shedding-60-pounds_4457363″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Contact Music</a>. “I beat it by a pound, so 137. I was losing weight while we were shooting the movie too, so continuity kind of went out of the window.”</p>
<p id=”par-4_19″>He lost so much weight that at the time he had some noticeable side effects that worried the studio.</p>
<p id=”par-5_58″>”[I had] no energy, no nutrition, and the studio, there was a complaint about that, that my lips were always looking blue,” Wahlberg said. ”What the f*** do you want me to do? I haven’t eaten anything! If you make them red, I’m going to look weird, like I’ve got lipstick on, so it is what it is.”</p>
<p id=”par-6_23″>Wahlberg had to shoot <em>Transformers </em>not too long after <em>The Gambler</em>. But Bay was less than pleased to see his star’s new look.</p>
<p id=”par-7_54″>“He goes, ‘You look like crap! What are you going to do? We’ve got to shoot in five weeks,’” Wahlberg remembered according to <a href=”https://www.cp24.com/entertainment-news/wahlberg-says-transformers-director-freaked-out-over-weight-loss-for-the-gambler-1.2096584″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>CP24</a>. “I probably put on 40 pounds back. But it still wasn’t enough for him. He said, ‘Aw, I’ve got to shoot you like this to make you look cool again.’”</p>
<h2 id=”h-how-mark-wahlberg-s-family-reacted-to-his-dramatic-weight-loss”>How Mark Wahlberg’s family reacted to his dramatic weight loss</h2>
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<iframe loading=”lazy” title=”Mark Wahlberg Talks Weight Loss and More at ‘The Gambler’ Premiere” width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/7CHhPD43OJc?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-8_30″>Bay wasn’t the only one put off by Wahlberg’s weight loss. <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/who-is-mark-wahlbergs-wife.html/”>His wife Rhea Durham</a> and children had a similar reaction, but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as Bay’s.</p>
<p id=”par-9_36″>“[Michael Bay] is a perfectionist. He was more upset than my wife. I mean, my wife was a little freaked out that I was losing this much weight, but he was really freaked out,” he said.</p>
<p id=”par-10_22″>But when Wahlberg started bulking back up for another role, his daughter quipped that acting might not have been his true calling.</p>
<p id=”par-11_36″>“I’m training now for this other thing and my daughter’s like, ‘ You should quit your job, you should become a body builder.’ She’s just being sarcastic. She’s probably heard her mother say something,” he said.</p>
<h2 id=”h-mark-wahlberg-was-miserable-on-the-gambler”>Mark Wahlberg was miserable on ‘The Gambler’</h2>
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<iframe loading=”lazy” title=”The Gambler Official Trailer #1 (2014) – Mark Wahlberg, Jessica Lange Movie HD” width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y5gPQXbFs9Y?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-12_20″>Losing all that weight wasn’t a fun time for <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/mark-wahlberg-major-problems-martin-scorsese-the-departed-set.html/”><em>The Departed </em>star</a>. Especially since he was pretty big on eating.</p>
<p id=”par-13_56″>“I became a miserable prick,” Wahlberg once told <a href=”https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/mark-wahlberg-on-starving-himself-for-the-gambler-i-100685152967.html#:~:text=To%20drop%20the%20pounds%2C%20the,performance%20in%201997’s%20Boogie%20Nights.” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Yahoo</a>. “I’m a huge foodie. I’d have a dinner meeting with a group, and just watch them eat. I had a major, major craving for anything and everything. I would go to places and look at the menu. My wife would be like, ‘Why are you torturing yourself?’”</p>
<p id=”par-14_16″>His appetite grew so much that he once stood around food just to be near it.</p>
<p id=”par-15_88″>“At one point, we went to Montecito [California]. We went to church, and then we went by this little cafe, and I just wanted to sit there and smell the food. And she was like, ‘What are you doing?’ Then I snapped at her. I said, ‘This is all I got. And you know what? I want to do it. I’ll stay here as long as I want. You take the car, go back and come get me.’ And I just stayed there, smelling the food,” he recalled.</p>