Being an actor sometimes requires concessions. And sometimes more or less drastic diets depending on the scenario. Joaquin Phoenix had for example been thinned by 22 kilos for the film Joker (released in 2019). This time, it’s David Harbour, the interpreter of Jim Hopper in Stranger Thingswho lent himself to the game. And the least we can say is that the 47-year-old actor did not pretend since he lost more than 30 kilos to meet the expectations of the screenwriters from the Serie.
“Last season I lost, I think it was 36kg. You know, at the end of season three, I was around 122 kg, then when we entered this season, I was 86” he detailed in an interview with BBC Breakfast. It is therefore much thinner and very muscular than it appeared in season 4, released on May 27. His character had to be physically very different from previous episodes, since he spent several months in a Russian gulag, deprived of food and forced to do intense physical work.
“I was very hungry”
“The secret, if you’re curious about the secret to the diet, is simply not to eat food” explained the actor with a lot of humor, without hiding the efforts he had to make to achieve this objective. “It’s not easy, it’s hard not to eat when you’re losing so much weight and you’re hungry.” he admitted in all transparency.
A regime could not be more drastic therefore for David Harbour, who had already expressed his difficulties experienced during this regime in an interview with the New York Times. “The first scene we shot was in prison, so this belly that comes towards you is real belly. And then, while we were filming, I started losing weight. I was very hungry for much of the shoot” he had said.
Note that he has been in a relationship since 2019 with singer Lily Allen. The two lovebirds said “yes” to each other in September 2020 in Las Vegas.