Charlize Theron gained 23 kilos by eating mac and cheese at 2am

ACTOR Charlize Theron has opened up about how gaining 23 kilos for her latest role didn’t just change her physical appearance.

SHE was required to put on weight for her Oscar-winning role in Monster, but Charlize Theron said gaining for her new film Tully wasn’t so easy.

The 42-year-old actor put on 23kg to play an exhausted, overworked mum in the new film, a requirement that she said made an impact on her mental state.

“I wanted to feel what this woman felt, and I think that was a way for me to get closer to her and get into that mindset,” Theron told Entertainment Tonight.

“You know, it was a huge surprise to me. I got hit in the face pretty hard with depression. Yeah, for the first time in my life I was eating so much processed foods and I drank way too much sugar. I was not that fun to be around on this film.”

Charlize Theron had to put on 23kg for her new role

Theron said she would eat around the clock just to keep the weight on.

“Like, all of a sudden you’re just done eating that amount and then it becomes a job,” she said after confessing to eating In-N-Out for breakfast.

“I remember having to set my alarm in the middle of the night in order to just maintain [the weight].

“I would literally wake up at 2 in the morning and I’d have a cup of cold macaroni and cheese just next to me,” the Oscar winner shared.

Charlize Theron in her new film, Tully

“I would wake up and I would just eat it … I would just, like, shove it in my throat. It’s hard to maintain that weight.”

Theron’s weight gain was so jarring for her two kids, Jackson, 6, and August, 2, that they thought she was pregnant.

When the film was completed, then came the daunting task of shedding the weight. Theron said it took a year and a half.

Charlize Theron has opened up about gaining weight and losing it again for her film, Tully. Picture: MEGA.

“I was worried. I was like, this is taking a really long time,” she said. “Because on ‘Monster,’ I just didn’t snack for five days and I was fine. You know your body at 27 is a little different than your body at 43, and my doctor made sure to make me very aware of that. Like, you are 42, calm down, you’re not dying, all good.”

Originally published as Charlize Theron gained 23 kilos by eating mac and cheese at 2am