Orlando Bloom is getting pretty solid reviews for an intense performance in his latest film, The Cut. The movie premiered at TIFF last Friday, you may remember him hitting the red carpet with fiance Katy Perry and her terrible bangs. Anyway, Orlando plays a has-been boxer who has to lose an insane amount of weight on a tight deadline in order to qualify for one last bout. Caitríona Balfe and John Turturro round out the cast as his wife and seedy trainer. So given the storyline, Orlando had to shed a lot of weight, which ended up totaling 52 pounds lost in three months. But don’t worry, he didn’t starve himself! Orlando says he subsisted on a diet of tuna and cucumber. And I don’t think he means like tea sandwiches. Please read along for some graphic descriptions of the physical and mental stress of his rapid weight loss, though I do recommend having a sated stomach first:
In the Sean Ellis film “The Cut,” Orlando Bloom plays a boxer on the brink of a total breakdown as he races against the clock to drop weight before a fight. Under the guidance of a shady coach, played by John Turturro, Bloom will do anything to shed pounds, even as it threatens his life.
Bloom himself lost a whopping 52 pounds in three months in preparation for the movie, which also stars Caitríona Balfe. He discussed his eye-popping physical transformation at Variety’s Toronto Film Festival Studio, sponsored by J.Crew and SharkNinja.
“I basically tiered down the food over a three-month period until just before filming, [when] I was at my lightest. I dropped 52 pounds, and I was about 185 when I started,” Bloom said. “So I dropped quite a lot of weight, and I was very mentally challenged as well. You feed somebody tuna and cucumber long enough…”
Since the film follows the boxer on an often disturbing journey to making a lower weight class, Ellis shot “The Cut” in reverse chronological order, meaning Bloom was actually bulking up during production.
“Your brain is starved of calories, basically,” Ellis said to Bloom. “It was going to be impossible for him to work while dieting. So, he came to us at his lightest, and then he starts to eat. So that meant that we had to shoot the film [with] the ending first and the beginning of the movie at the end. … Over the 25 days that we were shooting, he was putting on the calories. And then it’s edited in reverse.”
Bloom adding the physical transformation was more “exciting” than “daunting.”
“I was more surprised about the mental aspect of [it], like the sleep deprivation, and not the depleted calories,” he said. “There’s a lot going on in your brain … living in that headspace for a while was very challenging.”
Audiences looking for a straight-forward boxing movie may be surprised, however, as “The Cut” plays out more like a body horror. It’s set mostly in a hotel room as the boxer drains blood, takes diuretics and manipulates his body before the all important weigh-in. Some of the more intense scenes shocked the crowd at the film’s world premiere on Thursday night.
“Somebody in my row passed out!” Bloom said. Ellis concurred: “Yeah, we had a fainter. I think we’ve got to put that on the film poster.”
Balfe, who plays Bloom’s character’s wife, said of seeing “The Cut” with an audience for the first time, “You can read something on the page and it sounds one way, but to see it, it’s so visceral. And I think the way it was shot and the way it was performed, it’s a tough watch. A good watch, but…”
“It’s set mostly in a hotel room as the boxer drains blood, takes diuretics and manipulates his body before the all important weigh-in.” To each her own, but I’m thinking this is a big “no thanks” from me. Particularly on the blood draining image (is the big twist that there are vampires?). Notwithstanding my own history of very strongly not liking needles, to what end does this need to be shown on screen? Does it not sound like a tired trope, and also like they’re seeking to shock for shock’s sake? Or perhaps I’m just a wimpy wimp. I’m not making a judgment on Orlando’s performance or work ethic, I’m just questioning the material. Like I said above, critics are mostly recognizing the work Orlando put in to this role, but the movie is getting bad reviews. And here’s another shocker to top it all off: the bangs trauma that Katy sported at the premiere? They weren’t even real!
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 13: (L-R) Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom attend the 10th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 864783967, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- Actor Orlando Bloom seen leaving his hotel with his dog in tow in New York City, USA, 17 April 2024,Image: 865826354, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- 9/9/24, New York, New York, United States Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom on the red carpet during The Caring For Women Gala, held at The Pool 99 East 52nd Street in New York City, New York, USA, Monday September 9, 2024.,Image: 906244481, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com, Model Release: no, Credit line: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com / Avalon
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- 9/9/24, New York, New York, United States Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom on the red carpet during The Caring For Women Gala, held at The Pool 99 East 52nd Street in New York City, New York, USA, Monday September 9, 2024.,Image: 906244514, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com, Model Release: no, Credit line: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com / Avalon
photos credit: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com / Avalon, Avalon.red / Avalon, Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon, Julie Edwards / Avalon
Orlando has not been looking healthy of late. I thought he had ozempic face. This crash diet can’t possibly be good for you!
It’s not. And I hate seeing yet another stupid eating regimen publicized like this. And it might have been a revelation to Bloom & his director, but girls & women know this kind of thing all too well, as do high school wrestlers (as mentioned by @Kiera below). It’s stupid & should never been encouraged or talked about in such a cavalier manner.
My brother wrestled in high school and college and the things they did to cut weight were awful. At one point he was grey and looked like he was about to die. The coach finally stepped in and forced him to go up a weight class. But we still subsisted on poached chicken, brown rice and broccoli every wrestling season.
Do you know how many ways there are to cook that meal? Not enough.
It’s been great hearing from some former athletes recently that when they were at their ‘best’ they were actually really unhealthy.
We don’t need more films that require massive physical transformations that are fundamentally unhealthy.
Well said.
This movie sounds awful!
Huge physical transformations have aways been considered Oscar bait – this sounds like they just used a lighter story to be centered around that. I have a history of ED (IRL body horror) and am unsure if this is something I will be able to watch but I will keep an eye out on the reviews.
@Sandra: ITA, and it always makes me side-eye the Oscars.
So gaining/losing a huge amount of weight (or, if you’re a woman, playing someone “ugly”/not-glamorous – like Reese Witherspoon’s entire campaign pitch for Wild being “It was hard not to look cute!”) is what constitutes the height of impressive acting, according to an academy made up of presumably the best actors in the business? Really?
It seems such a weird take on one’s own profession…
Also, I’m sorry to hear about your ED. That was my thought too though upon hearing the description of some of these scenes: this can’t be an easy thing for anyone with any kind of disordered eating to view; I hope everyone who attends the movie knows what to expect in terms of these scenes. (I wouldn’t have guessed that losing weight was the main focus of the film, or such a prominent and graphically depicted point of it, so I’m glad for the heads up!)
One could always try to lose weight with a healthier and more varied diet that is mostly (plant-) protein-based.
It’s not like no one has ever heard of mercury in tuna before. Which, usually, doesn’t cause anything if one eats only a moderate amount, occasionally.
But this sounds crazy, and not like something proper nutritionists would recommend.
Can you say mercury poison.
This crossed my mind too. Overdosing on tuna is not healthy whatsoever. Yikes.
This right here, you are not supposed to eat that much tuna! As much as I love it, you have to limit it.
He looks terrible lately. I don’t say it unkindly. It’s worrisome – both with the weight and without it.
I was thinking the same thing. Hopefully he’s okay!
1. Movies featuring extreme weight fluctuations by the lead have been done and no more need to be made. Didn’t Tom Hanks blame long term health problems (diabetes?) on extreme, rapid weight fluctuations due to roles (particularly Castaway)? No role is worth permanently damaging your health. Dangerous, disordered eating should never be promoted or glamorized in any setting. 2. Lort. The body language between Katie and Orlando is way off..
I like Katy’s pin-up bangs. They suit her.
The movie sounds interesting, the sacrifices made by athletes to be on top of their game are sometimes extreme and disordered.
As someone currently dealing with a very restricted diet for medical reasons, I cannot imagine doing this voluntarily. Yup, I’ve lost a crap ton of weight extremely fast. But my hair is also falling out, I’m fatigued all the time, the brain fog is unreal. It sucks.
I see Orlando, I get confused, I look up his age, the number feels right for when I remember him to have more heartthrob type roles, then I look at his pictures again and I don’t get it. That is a ROUGH 47. Seeing him next to Katy, only seven years younger, and he seriously doesn’t look like he’s part of her generation. Not quite could be her dad, but an older uncle, sure. But again the years have worked on him like crazy and I’m left confused. Especially compared to other male actors in their 60s who look younger than him.