Mark Wahlberg stopped by The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday and actor opened up about his dramatic weight gain transformation for his new faith-based movie, Stu, about the true-life story of Reverend Stuart Long. Wahlberg plays Long, who started out as a failed boxer before moving to Los Angeles to try his hand at acting. When a motorcycle accident derailed those plans, Long turned to religion and joined a seminary where he faced his greatest challenge yet: a degenerative muscle disease that resulted in the need for a wheelchair.
As part of his commitment to the film, which Wahlberg has been trying to get made for years, he dedicated himself to an intense physical transformation that saw the normally jacked actor gain 30 pounds in six weeks. As he explained to Fallon, it was not the best time. Via IndieWire:
“Unfortunately, I had to consume, for two weeks, 7,000 calories, and then for another two weeks, 11,000 calories. And it was fun for about an hour,” Wahlberg said. “It’s such a hard, physical thing to do. Losing weight, you just kind of tough it out, you just don’t eat, and exercise. And this, even when you’re full, I would wake up after a meal and have another meal. I was eating every three hours. It was not fun.”
It sounds like the process was not as awesome as Wahlberg anticipated when he announced his goal back in April. At the time, he told Jimmy Kimmel that he was excited to go nuts by going to “bakeries, I want to go to Denny’s, I want to get pancakes, I want to get everything I can possibly get my hands on,” including “the 20-piece chicken nugget and 20-piece hot wings from Kentucky Fried Chicken with a six-pack of beer.” Granted, Wahlberg packed on the pounds in time for the film’s production, but he probably won’t be hitting any fast food drive-thrus anytime soon.
