Standing at 6'4 and weighing at 240lbs, Daunte Culpepper was one of those large quarterbacks that was athletically nimble and could take a hit. Whether on the ground or through the air, Culpepper delivered results during the prime years of his NFL career. Daunte Culpepper's mother, Barbara Henderson was serving a prison sentence during her pregnancy and adopted and raised by Emma Lewis Culpepper who worked at the same correctional facility, Daunte's mother was being held at. Throughout his sports career, Culpepper excelled at multiple sports and was even drafted 26th overall in the 1995 MLB Draft by the New York Yankees. Culpepper refused to sign a contract with the Yankees and took his talents to the University of Central Florida where he would play from 1995-1998.
After virtually rewriting UCF's quarterback record books, Daunte Culpepper was selected 11th overall in the 1999 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings where he would play seven seasons out of hi eleven-season NFL career. The 3x Pro Bowl selectee's best season came in 2004 when he contributed to a total yardage of 5,123, the most by a quarterback in a single season in NFL history. Unfortunately, in 2005, Culpepper would suffer a knee injury that damaged his ACL, MCL, and PCL that would derail his professional football for the remainder of his days. From 2006 to 2009, Culpepper would suit up for the Miami Dolphins, Oakland Raiders, and Detriot Lions before taking his talents to the United Football League where he would play a single season for the Sacramento Mountain Lions before his official retirement from the game.
Celebrities are no strangers to changing their looks for a role. And in some instances, they have to get pretty extreme. From 500-calorie-a-day diets to drinking pints of ice cream, Actors and actresses know what it takes to change their bodies in preparation for a new film.
Charlize Theron is no stranger to gaining and losing weight for movie roles, as we remember her transformation in Monster. Charlize Theron gained close to 50 pounds for her role as Marlo in Tully. Theron said that “for the first time in my life I was eating so much processed foods and I drank way too much sugar. … I remember having to set my alarm in the middle of the night in order to just maintain the weight.”
You’re used Chris Hemsworth's hulk-like figure in Thor, but In the Heart of the Sea required a totally different diet. The movie required the cast members lose a ton of weight to make their stuck-at-sea plight more believable. Chris Hemsworth said there were days when all he ate was one boiled egg, a couple of crackers, and a celery stick.
Anne Hathaway wanted to get serious for her role in Les Misérables, as she was playing Fantine, a starving prostitute with tuberculosis. So Anne Hathaway went on a diet of “rabbit food” to drop 25 pounds. Hathaway explained her diet was essentially just starving herself, but she didn’t want to give details, as she doesn’t want to encourage anyone to copy her emaciated look. She did note that she “just had to stop eating for a total of 13 days shooting,” however. And at one point, her bones became so frail that she reportedly broke her arm.
Matthew McConaughey's portrayal of Ron Woodruff in Dallas Buyers Club, a man with HIV/AIDS, was spot-on, earning him the title of best actor at the Oscars. But it also required a serious physical transformation. Matthew McConaughey said he lost 38 pounds for the role. During filming, he said he lost a lot of energy from eating so little — and he hit plenty of plateaus along the way. Finally, with a strict diet, he got down to 143 pounds. And while he did cardio to help with the weight loss, he said it was 90% what he was eating and portion size.
Hilary Swank had to put on 23 pounds of pure muscle for her role as a boxer in Million Dollar Baby. The process doesn’t sound easy, however. “I started working out five hours a day — I had to eat 210 grams of protein a day,” Swank said. She also mentioned that she had to consume 60 egg whites per day, and when that proved too difficult, she had to drink them. And to keep the muscle on, she would get up and drink protein shakes in the middle of the night.