Charlize Theron Became Depressed After Gaining 50 Pounds For Her New Movie Role

In her new film Tully, Charlize Theron plays an exhausted mother of three. For the role, the Oscar winner gained some 50 pounds — and experienced an unexpected side effect along the way. 

Chatting with Entertainment Tonight, Theron revealed that gaining the weight left her feeling low. "I got hit in the face pretty hard with depression," she shared. "For the first time in my life, I was eating so much processed foods and I drank way too much sugar. I was not that fun to be around on this film." 

Theron gained the weight over the course of about three months, and the first few weeks of calorie-splurging were actually fun. "You're just like a kid in a candy store," Theron said. "So it was fun to go and have breakfast at In-N-Out and have two milkshakes."

But, the sugary honeymoon phase didn't last for long. "After three weeks, it's not fun anymore. Like, all of a sudden you're just done eating that amount and then it becomes a job. I remember having to set my alarm in the middle of the night in order to just maintain [the weight]," the actress told ET.  

It took Theron a year and a half to take the excess weight off and that process itself wasn't exactly fun. "There's nothing fun about that. It took about a year and a half. It was a long journey, very long journey," she said. "I was worried. I was like, this is taking a really long time. Because [after gaining weight] on Monster, I just didn't snack for five days and I was fine. You know your body at 27 is a little different than your body at 43, and my doctor made sure to make me very aware of that. Like, you are 42, calm down, you're not dying, all good."