Zac Efron has recently revealed the “devastating” process he went through to attain his Baywatch body gave him “pretty bad depression”.
Back in 2017, the 34-year-old starred in the reboot movie of the 90s classic Baywatch, however in an interview with Men’s Health Efron talked about the extremes he went to to get in shape and how it impacted his mental health.
Zac Efron Baywatch Body Misery
In the interview, the former High School Musical star talked about the process he went through in order to get the super washboard abs.
He said: ‘That Baywatch look, I don’t know if that’s really attainable. There’s just too little water in the skin. Like, it’s fake; it looks CGI’d
‘And that required Lasix, powerful diuretics, to achieve. So I don’t need to do that. I much prefer to have an extra, you know, 2 to 3 per cent body fat.’
Efron also explained along with taking diuretics he would overtrain and sleep very little which led to his “pretty bad depression”.
‘I started to develop insomnia and I fell into a pretty bad depression, for a long time. Something about that experience burned me out. I had a really hard time recentering,’ he added.
‘Ultimately they chalked it up to taking way too many diuretics for way too long, and it messed something up.’
Overall, he wanted people to know what a devastating process it was for it him to go through.
Celeb body changes for movies
Efron isn’t the first – or likely the last – celebrity to undergo extreme body changes all for a role. Over the years several celebrities have either undergone extreme weight loss, muscle gain, or weight gain all in the name of a movie.
Perhaps one of the most dramatic transformations made for a role in the history of film was that of Christian Bale for The Machinist.
For the role, Bale lost almost 30kg for the role, following a strict diet for four months, when he ate only one can of tuna fish and one apple per day, the equivalent of about 260 calories. He also drank black coffee and had an extreme cardio regime, according to Men’s Health.
Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt and Jared Leto also took on extreme diets for various different roles.
