Diet Hard, Or The Time I Lost And Gained Weight The Same Way As The Stars - Part II
How to get a body like Withnail or The Insider's Jeffrey Wigand.
WEEK THREE
Eastspiration: Richard E Grant (Withnail & I, 1987)
Daily diet: Protein drink for breakfast and lunch, 'sensible' evening meal (i.e. turkey stir fry)
Ration regime: "I'm looking for Byron, not a chubby Dirk Bogarde," spat writer-director Bruce Robinson when asked to consider Richard E Grant for the role of arch-alcoholic Withnail. This must have comes as a significant blow to REG since he'd spent the previous 18 months supping weight-gaining drinks and working out, convinced that his brittle physique was hindering his career.
With Robinson commanding that "half of you has to go", Grant phoned up fellow cadaver Gary Oldman who introduced him to a diet agent who in turn prescribed a weight-loss powder that helped him shed 14 pounds in as many days. Not that this pre-production starvation dampened Grant's appetite during filming. As Robinson recalls, "When we were shooting, he was a rampant carnivore, shoving beef and sheep in."
You are what you eat: Of course, when you're only quaffing protein drinks, even the idea of eating slugs becomes pretty tempting. To be fair, the scheme famously endorsed by 'DJ' Barry Bethel in the '90s isn't that hard to stick to. That said, it isn't very exciting either. In his movie diaries With Nails, Grant explains that he supplemented his diet with nutrition bars but since I'm only following the regime for a week, it's diet drinks all the way.
The only real sticking point is interpreting that 'sensible evening meal' which is way more restrictive than you might think. After a week, I've shed three pounds and am in desperate need of a drink. And please, not a diet drink - it's like brushing your guts with Play-Doh.
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