Robert de Niro Prepared for $23M Movie with Ice Cream and Pizza, Won Two Professional Matches with That Diet
Robert De Niro is truly a legendary actor, and his commitment to his roles is out of this world. It’s no wonder he became such a big deal in the movie business. When it comes to acting, De Niro doesn’t hold back. For a movie worth a whopping $23 million, he did something pretty unusual to get into character. Instead of sticking to a regular diet, he went all-in on ice cream and pizza.
Robert De Niro underwent a major transformation for the Raging Bull role
It wasn’t until the 1970s that Robert De Niro, a major Hollywood actor, rose to international acclaim. He has appeared in a wide range of films, including serious and action-packed ones, and he has played both significant and minor roles. His net worth of $500 million is enough to prove what a big star he really is. Undoubtedly, one of his most famous movies is Raging Bull.
When Robert De Niro prepared to take on the demanding role of boxer Jake LaMotta for Raging Bull, he had two major challenges ahead of him. The challenges were to go through hard training and achieve huge weight gain. What’s actually amazing is how precisely he recreated LaMotta’s later years, when the boxer put on a lot of additional weight.
De Niro decided to commit to this change by gaining an astonishing 60 pounds in just four months, going from a trim figure to a substantial 215 pounds. He went on a four-month food binge, indulging in huge amounts of pizza and ice cream. Because of this massive weight gain, he even had problems with breathing. But even with that diet, the actor won two professional boxing matches. Hard to believe right?
That’s not all, though. Because he wanted to depict the boxer as accurately as possible, the actor had to put himself through an intense training regimen.
Raging Bull was the hardest project Robert De Niro has ever done
Robert De Niro played a boxer named Jake LaMotta in the film Raging Bull, which was one of his most notable performances. De Niro was required to do something incredibly unexpected to get into character. He made the decision to become a boxer rather than pretend to be one. He spent over a year working out with LaMotta and boxed over 1,000 rounds. He not only improved greatly in his boxing, but he also competed in three professional matches, winning two of them.
De Niro admitted that training for his role as Jake LaMotta for the movie was the most difficult task he had ever undertaken. De Niro noted that LaMotta’s massive weight gain was one of the reasons that attracted him to the role. He wanted to find out if he could undergo the massive change from being a young fighter to an unfit person. We now know Raging Bull as a spectacular movie thanks to De Niro’s commitment to the character and Martin Scorsese’s vision for the movie.
Source: The List
