Handsome actor Jared Leto has vowed never to do the Robert DeNiro thing of gain weight for a movie role again after he piled on 60 pounds to play John Lennon's killer Mark David Chapter in "Chapter 27", a film which he shot more than 18 months ago. Leto says he is still suffering the side effects of "gorging and force-feeding" himself for the role and he fears he will never regain his once-fit physique.
More than a year after the film debuted at January 2007's Sundance Film Festival, Leto says, "I'd never do it again; it definitely gave me some problems."
"I don't know if it was gout - but I had a definite problem with my feet. Towards the end of the shoot, one of the glaring issues was the pain I had with my feet. I couldn't walk for long distances; I had a wheelchair because it was so painful. My body was in shock from the amount of weight I gained. It took about a year to get back to a place that felt semi-normal. 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."
"It was an interesting experience. It was interesting to see people reactions - particularly people I knew but hadn't seen in a while and who obviously thought I'd let myself go."
