Time Spent Preparing: Six months To play the AIDS-afflicted Ron Woodroof in Jean-Marc Vallee's Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey decided he needed to burn off a few pounds. Of course, with McConaughey long being known as the beefy shirtless wonder of innumerable rom-coms, losing the weight was bound to take some time - it took six months. McConaughey apparently exercised intensively in this time and survived on a diet of egg whites and chicken to shed a total of 47 pounds, bringing him down to just nine and a half stone. McConaughey also used his six months to stay indoors at his Texas home, so he could become "paler". Such was the time McConaughey took, you can even see the impact of McConaughey's Dallas Buyers Club weight loss on his other roles leading up to filming on Vallee's film, with McConaughey's frame appearing significantly diminished in The Wolf Of Wall Street (which shot a few months before Buyers Club).