‘Dallas Buyers Club’ Matthew McConaughey Lost 47 Pounds! Film Is ‘The Funniest Fact Based AIDS Drama

Matthew McConaughey is known as an actor who can deliver, but he never really had the challenge of an award-worthy performance. "Dallas Buyers Club" may change that.

He still has his usual dedication in preparing for a role. Playing an AIDS sufferer (as opposed to victim) he lost as much as 47 pounds for the role! The question on your mind is-HOW? In an ineterview with Grantland, he replies:

" I gave myself three, four months to do it. I went talking to nutritionists because I wanted to know the easiest way to do it, and one thing was consistent. They all said it was going to be easy to drop it. It's on the way back, gaining it back, that you've got to be real concerned.

You'll know how you're feeling, if you know your body. "Joint integrity." That came up a bunch. Joint integrity. But I did it, and I was doing, protein - fish - and vegetables, three times a day. And I drank my wine at night, and I was losing three and a half pounds a week. Once I started it, my body was like, OK, we get it. I did it until I lost 47 pounds."

How did AIDS affect your character?

"Well that's what gave him structure and purpose. His family said he never would finish anything, with a woman, with a job, with an idea. He'd get to the end and he'd disappear. Here for the first time, you've got something to grab a hold of. I never even thought of the Walter White/Breaking Bad thing. But yeah, this gave him identity. It gave him something to fight for that he couldn't just walk away from."

It's the funniest AIDS drama I've seen.

"Well, he was already a cantankerous, blaspheming bastard in the script. But then I grabbed all this humor from stuff and stories he'd tell. Even how he talked about "Man, if I don't get a cure, I can't get my dick up, I'll piss myself." So he's talking about being broken down by this disease. Even pre-disease, he had an incredible wit. People'd go, "I can't believe the shit coming out of his mouth." [Director] Jean-Marc [Vallée] and I got together and I said the further I go and stay true to this guy's conspiracy theories and blasphemous, sadistic humor, the humanity's going to come out. A lot of times, he'd be like, "Are we going too far?" And I'd be like, "I don't think so, man." If we hold this line, his humanity's going to come out."

Plot summary from Focus Features:

"The story of Texas electrician Ron Woodroof and his battle with the medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies after being diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986, and his search for alternative treatments that helped established a way in which fellow HIV-positive people could join for access to his supplies. "