Claire Danes is sharing her real opinion roles that require extreme transformations.
The 47-year-old actress chatted with Half Man star Richard Gadd, 37, for CNN and Variety’s Actors on Actors series (via Us Weekly), revealing that she actually resents roles like that, at least at first.
“I don’t know if it’s ever been necessary for me to transform in such an extreme way,” Claire said. “Some roles are more remote than others, and I do have to apply myself with a bit more rigor in putting them together. Those are the most rewarding, really — high risk, high-reward.”
She continued, “I resent them initially and then I’m so grateful and I find the most freedom within them. Sometimes it’s quite stressful to play somebody who is super familiar, who you overlap with.”
Claire was there to promote and discuss her recent Netflix show The Beast in Me, in which she played a grieving mother.
Richard had his own take on the transformation process as he gained about 90 pounds for his role in the HBO series Half Man, a follow-up to the hugely successful Baby Reindeer. He compared his characters from both in conversation with Claire.
“Donny Dunn was like 68.8 kilograms [151 pounds]. Ruben at my heaviest was 110 [242 pounds]. I wanted it to be real, so a lot of it was putting a lot of fat on top of the muscles. It’s quite helpful, because as the character, you feel physically imposing, and Jamie Bell’s very petite,” he said. Jamie is his Half Man co-star.
“When I was acting with him, I could almost ingest him, I was so much bigger than him. It helped in that respect. I like that because — I don’t know about you. I hate feeling like myself on set,” Richard added.
Learn more about Richard‘s impressive Half Man transformation here!
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