Jared Leto’s 60-pound weight gain for Chapter 27 reportedly took a toll on his body and briefly left him wheelchair bound.
"I don’t know if I’ll ever be back to the place I was physically."
But the 36-year-old stands by his decision to gain so much weight – insisting it enabled him to capture the spirit of Chapman, who shot Lennon dead outside his New York apartment in 1980. Leto explains, "It was important to make that transformation because I thought his physical representation of himself was an indication of who he was. And it changed everything about who I was – the way I walked , the way I talked, the way I felt about myself, the way people treated me." [CinemaBlend]
Leto discussed his transformation on a segment of the Tyra Banks show entitled, “Pretending to be Poor is Hard Work”. But everyone knows gaining weight for a role is how you gain respect as an actor. So… how’s that workin out for him?
This misbegotten psychological portrait eagerly foregrounds Leto’s excess blubber and histrionic blather, delivered like bad improv outside the Dakota building. –Village Voice
Will likely make its own mark on history as the single most relentlessly self-conscious vanity project to ever be conceived. –eFilmCritic
At one point, Chapman confesses that he doesn’t enjoy the movies because they’re "so goddamn phony," and with regard to the superficial, ugly-as-dirt Chapter 27, he’s right on the money. –Slant Magazine [Via RT]
Ouch – better luck next time. In retrospect, probably shouldn’t have wasted the big weight gain on a movie with Lindsay Lohan in it. In other news, a New York Daily News review of my penis described it as “Substantial, but not unapproachable.”
