Kim Cattrall and Brendan Fraser's New Roles Call for Extra Pounds


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Kim Cattrall and Brendan Fraser are the latest actors to put on a few extra pounds in the name of success on the silver screen. From Robert De Niro's shocking 60 lb. bulk-up in "Raging Bull" to Renee Zellweger's "Bridget Jones" plumping, stars often don't shy away from weight gain when their characters demand it.

Cattrall's most recent work-related weight gain involved packing on 15 pounds for her role as a washed-up prostitute in "Meet Monica Velour." Cattrall discussed her new body with New York Magazine, revealing that the film's director had initially wanted her to gain 35 pounds. "Just for health reasons I couldn't do that," the blond beauty explained. "I also didn't have enough time to do it safely with a doctor's care."

The "****** and the City" star says her anti-fitness regimen involved simply not exercising, a process she described as terrifying. "Most of the time as an actress, you want to look desirable, you want to be pretty, you want to be ******y, you want to be lit properly," Cattrall said. "Whereas here there were days when I didn't even have any makeup on. There were days when they actually changed the light to make me look harder and more overweight."

Her "****** and the City" co-star Kristin Davis has been working to change her body as well, though she's in the process of correcting past mistakes. Davis has been consulting with celeb trainer Tracy Anderson to get the shape she wants. "I didn't realize, but I had been developing my abs kind of outwards," . "We don't want that!" Davis told a magazine

Fraser took a more humorous approach to his expanding stomach, which he developed for his role in the slapstick comedy "Furry Vengeance." In the film, Fraser plays a real estate developer attempting to bulldoze a forest in spite of protests from a crop of mischievous woodland creatures.

Fraser's weight gain (which he told Al Roker on Wednesday's "Today" show clocked in at about 26 pounds) was functional as well as comical. Fraser told Parade magazine the extra padding was a necessary line of defense against the film's stunts: "I needed a bigger butt on account of there was going be a lot of physical comedy. I get thrown around a lot in the movie." He went on to explain that the chubby look came with its own built-in punchline. "Let's just face it, it's funny," Fraser said. "Kids love it. Adults love it. They're like, 'Ha-ha, look! Brendan Fraser, the guy who was really buff in all those action movies, has gotten fat."

Though Fraser shies away from scales and can't say exactly how many pounds he put on, the actor managed a noticeable bulk-up. Brendan's inspiration for the chubby character was his own pet dog, whom he described as "the fattest Chihuahua on the planet, which astonishes me because it's only got like two teeth left in its head to eat with." Now that the weight's on, Fraser must start working on dropping it. "I still need to get closer to the StairMaster to lose that paunch" he admitted. "But I wouldn't let the dog try it."