10 Bizarre Ways Famous Actors Got Into Character For Movie Roles

3. Anne Hathaway Ate Only Dried Oatmeal Paste - Les Miserables

Anne Hathaway won an Oscar for her turn as sad factory worker turned prostitute Fantine in Tom Hooper's filmic adaptation of beloved musical Les Miserables - a role she had to lose 25 pounds in order to play. "How did she do that?" you find yourself wondering, and the answer, dear reader, is "oatmeal paste." Not that those words really do anything to explain, in any capacity, what the hell oatmeal paste actually is or why Anne Hathaway resorted to eating it whilst she was filming Les Miserables. The weirdest thing of all is that the actress never clarified what this elusive food product was, exactly, which is actually kind of infuriating. According to Hathaway, she ate this substance in both the build-up and during the filming of Les Miserables at a rate of "two pieces a day." Surely there were better and more enjoyable ways to lose weight than to opt for this strange diet? You've got to give it to the girl, though; this weight loss method at least seems to be of the historically accurate kind - it probably made her feel more like a 19th century prostitute than any amount of research, costume design or actual time travel ever could.
Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.