Today's News, Tomorrow's Lesson - October 11, 2013

Henry Hepburn

Weight gain happens instantaneously in the movies. Orson Welles
transformed from a svelte young newspaper editor to a bloated recluse
in Citizen Kane. Robert De Niro metamorphosed from a wiry
world champion boxer to a jowly mess in Raging Bull.

But the punishing regimes stars go through to achieve these results
are easily ignored as audiences get pulled into the stories. Actors
pile on the pounds in a matter of months – and in doing so may subject
their body to lasting damage.

Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, who put on weight for films such as Cast
Away and A League of Their Own, has vowed never to do it
again after revealing that he had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

“I’ve talked to a number of actors who have gained weight for roles
and – just out of the sheer physical toll on one’s knees and shoulders
– no one wants to do it again,” said Hanks, 57, in a BBC interview. “I
think that’s more or less a young man’s game.”

In type 2 diabetes the body either does not produce enough insulin
or resists the hormone, which regulates the amount of glucose in the
blood. The condition is linked to family history, age and ethnic
background. People are more likely to get type 2 diabetes if they are
overweight.

Hanks has had symptoms such as high blood sugar since the age of 36.
Speaking at a press conference for his new film, Captain Phillips,
he said: “Gaining and losing of weight may have had something to do
with this, because you eat so much bad food and you don’t get any
exercise when you’re heavy.

“But I think I was genetically inclined to get it and I think it
actually goes back to a lifestyle I’ve been leading ever since I was
seven years old, as opposed to 36.”

Hanks, who has described diabetes as “part of life” and stressed
that he felt “just fine”, later told the BBC that pizza had been
crucial when he was gaining weight for roles. “Pizza is the most
delightful thing ever invented and it’s – for me – diabolically
dangerous.”