Matthew McConaughey Shows Off Massive Weight Loss For Upcoming Role

Matthew McConaughey is throwing himself into a new role where he plays a man struck with AIDS in the 1980s, losing close to 30 pounds for the role and making for some shocking images of the normally fit actor.

Though McConaughey has been showing off his dramatic weight loss throughout the summer, new pictures that emerged this week detail just how gaunt the actor now looks. The latest pictures, published in People, show a very thin looking Matthew McConaughey leaving leaving a church in Austin, Texas, and leaning on his mother for support.

The Daily Mail reports that McConaughey has lost 30 pounds on a strict diet for his role in The Dallas Buyers Club, a true story based on Ron Woodroof, a man who contracted the disease from drug use in the 1980s. McConaughey took on a diet filled with tiny portions of high-protein, low-carb food to get down to his target weight, Ontheredscarpet.com reported.

“I should not look healthy by the time I’m doing this,” McConaughey said on Larry King Now back in July, when he had lost 15 of the 30 pounds but was appearing buff onscreen in Magic Mike.

“It’s a bit of a spiritual cleanse, mental cleanse,” McConaughey told King. “[I’m] drinking a lot of tea … It takes a while for your body to understand that it has to feed off of itself and that you’re not going to give it something else from the outside.”

Though Matthew McConaughey is committed to his diet for the new role, the actor said he can’t wait to have a cheeseburger when it’s all done.