9 Insane Ways Oscar Winners Trained For Movie Blockbusters

9. Adrien Brody Gained 25 Pounds, Gave Up Sex & Booze (Predators)

At the mere age of 29, Adrien Brody became the youngest Best Actor Oscar winner in history for his magnificent performance in 2002's The Pianist.

In 2010, however, the actor surprised just about everyone by shedding his typically wiry frame to appear in the third main Predator movie as protagonist Royce, a mercenary who finds himself facing off against two tribes of Predators.

Brody trained extensively for the part, gaining 25 pounds of muscle in order to present a shredded physique, while also residing at the Hawaiian estate where most of the movie was shot, even sleeping there to prepare mentally (rather than just staying at a hotel with the rest of the cast).

That's not all, though: the actor also restricted himself in even more challenging ways. He said of the experience, "I was reading Sun Tzu. I was studying meditation. I was on a very strict diet. I wasn't drinking. I wasn't eating sugar. I wasn't having sex. I had to kind of go there, for me, because this was a tremendous opportunity."

Was It Worth It?: The film may have been a fairly modest critical and commercial success, but Brody's performance was widely praised, both as a more typical dramatic role and as an unconventional action star showcase that just about nobody could've seen coming.

Brody hasn't appeared in many card-carrying genre films since, but it definitely proved his surprising credibility in such roles.