Matthew McConaughey admitted in a recent interview with Radio Times that losing weight for his role in "Dallas Buyers Club" made him see himself in a new light, suggesting the weight-loss made him smarter, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.
At 6 feet tall, the 44-year-old actor lost 47 pounds for his award winning role as a man with AIDS. The weight-loss required an extremely strict diet of egg whites, a single piece of chicken a day and tapioca pudding.
"What I found was tapioca pudding," McConaughey said describing his weight-loss strategy, according to the Huffington Post. "I would use the tiniest little antique spoon and I would eat it with that so I would last longer. I could make it last an hour."
The diet even weakened McConaughey's vision.
"As soon as I hit 143 pounds, I started losing my eyesight," McConaughey said, according to the Daily Mail.
Though his body might have suffered, the "Magic Mike" actor says his intellect grew because he could not do fun things outdoors.
"I had to relearn how to entertain myself, because I wasn't going outside, I wasn't going to dinner, I wasn't going to social places," McConaughey said, according to the Daily Mail.
"I was writing so much more, reading so much more. It ended up being this really fun adventure internally."
The Texas-born actor said the hardest part about preparing for his role as "Ron Woodroof" was not losing weight, but learning how to reorganize his life.
"You have to reprogram all of your habits, and the days get so long," McChonaughey said in the interview, the Daily Mail reported. "You think it must be lunchtime already, and it's only 9:30 in the morning.
"I kept a diary of my nutrition the whole way through, and it is something I will probably share at some point because it was quite the adventure," McConaughey added.
McConaughey's weight loss and mental preparation was not in vain. "Dallas Buyers Club" is nominated for an Oscar and McConaughey won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.
