CALL IT A DIVORCE BOD if you must, but Orlando Bloom is looking seriously cut ahead of the release of his latest film, aptly titled The Cut.
The Cut is a psychological thriller in which Bloom plays a boxer who had his champion career ended by a bad defeat. Hell bent on redemption, he begins training for a comeback and cutting weight by extreme means. As per the synopsis, “obsession takes hold and reality unravels — and he may be spiralling into something far more terrifying.”
Expect an insight into the psychology of pro fighters, who famously go to great lengths to get their weight within a specific range. Bloom himself went through a similar experience while preparing for the film. His transformation was impressive and saw him drop 14kg quickly, but it also inflicted a huge mental toll.
Actors undergoing body transformations for roles is nothing new. In some ways, Hollywood is intrinsically linked with the fitness and weight loss industries. Some of the more notable transformations even become exemplars of the male physique, inspiring countless men to chase an ideal – see Brad Pitt’s Fight Club body, Sly Stallone’s Rambo biceps, or Chris Hemsworth’s Thor beefiness. But Bloom’s case is further evidence that these transformations can be harmful.
“What I hadn’t expected and was surprised by was the mental toll that this kind of intense discipline takes,” Bloom told People. “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!”
“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,” Bloom continued.
For anyone considering a similar diet and workout routine, Bloom warned that what he did is “definitely not something to try at home… I was supervised weekly and my blood work monitored by an expert nutritionist, who helped me lose 30 pounds in approximately three months.”
“Ultimately, this is a story about the struggles we all face and what it takes to battle our internal demons and find self-acceptance,” Bloom said.
Bloom also explained the difficulty of the weight loss process to Esquire. “That experience was full of PTSD from making the movie, to be honest,” he said.
“That’s something that I have to navigate now as we go through press, because it was a very raw experience. I had to drop an extreme amount of weight. A lot of the work was done for me almost through the process of doing that, which was really brutal, really harsh on my body and my mind, because you don’t sleep when you’re not eating, and you don’t really feel in your body.”
Try not to take inspiration from this particular celebrity routine. As Bloom says, it won’t do you any good.
