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Yes, it was a transformation so intense that he describes it as his body “shutting down.” Playing a down-and-out boxer who has to lose 30 pounds in a week to qualify for a title fight, Orlando Bloom’s journey to embody the character of Boxer required serious physical and mental commitment. “My brain was dead,” he told Entertainment Weekly, recalling the toll of the transformation at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
Shooting in reverse chronological order, Bloom started the film at his lightest weight, but by the end of production, his body was exhausted. The weight loss process was brutal, and as Bloom recalled, it wasn’t just physical. “It was actually more mentally than physically” challenging. The lack of sleep and constant calorie depletion made everything harder, especially when he had to prepare for extreme weight cuts.
The moment that shocked even him? Losing 10 pounds overnight. With the help of a nutritionist, who’d worked with stars like Christian Bale, Orlando followed a strict regimen that involved intense cardio and dieting. One night, he submerged himself in an Epsom salt bath, drank two liters of water, and went to bed. The next morning, he woke up 10 pounds lighter. “I was like, ‘Wait, what is this? Osmosis? How do you do this?'” Bloom laughed. The transformation was surreal, and he even sent a photo of the scale reading to friends and his partner.
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But Bloom wasn’t recommending this extreme measure for anyone else. “By the way, don’t try this at home,” he joked. He described the whole experience as a “science experiment,” and though it worked, the aftermath wasn’t pretty. Bloom had to be helped out of the bath and spent the following hours lying in bed to recover. “It was wild,” he added, giving a humorous but serious warning to avoid such drastic methods for weight loss.
The dedication didn’t end with weight loss. To embody Boxer’s emotional and physical state, Bloom underwent further transformation. From prosthetics to portraying the toll of past injuries, Bloom even toyed with the idea of method acting to break his nose for authenticity. However, they opted for a more practical prosthetic solution. He admitted the physical transformation had a huge impact on his performance.
The movie takes a fresh approach to the boxing genre by focusing on the mental and physical battles leading up to the fight rather than the fight itself. “It’s more of a character study,” Bloom explained. His character’s struggles with body dysmorphia and the lengths he’ll go to achieve greatness—or even just the desire to fight—bring a new dimension to a boxing story.
The film premiered at TIFF, and its visceral impact was felt by the audience. One viewer even passed out during the screening, further proving how intense the emotional stakes are in The Cut. “Apparently they came around in the ambulance and they were okay,” Bloom recalled. But the incident showed just how deeply the audience connected with the film’s brutal realism.
For Bloom, the whole process was a reminder of the true cost of ambition—and the lengths people will go to just to fight for a moment of greatness.
For more such stories, check out Hollywood News.
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