So why did Lou Diamond Phillips check into 'The Biggest Loser' resort?
Lou Diamond Phillips found out the hard way, you gotta work it to play a miner in The 33.
So when Phillips earned the part of shift foreman Luis Urzua, one of the 33 miners trapped underground (often with minimal food) for 69 days in the 2010 Chilean mine collapse, he got right to making himself look the part.
Director Patricia Riggen sent him and two other actors directly to Malibu and "The Biggest Loser Resort."
Phillips, 53, found it very challenging.
“I thought I was in pretty good shape. But they almost killed me. I thought they would show us a few things, give us a few pointers, give us a menu for a diet. No, no, no. They literally put us through a gauntlet of exercises to see what our physical capabilities were for eight hours. They measured our fat content, then they put me on a 1,200 calorie-a-day diet. I went and shaved that to 1,000 a day. They wanted us to do 2 to 4 hours of constant cardio a day.”
Phillips is a now big believer in the resort, as he dropped 15 pounds in three weeks to a super-lean 157 pounds for the part.
“It’s 100% the real deal, I gotta say. I know what they put us through. I cannot imagine someone who is carrying an extra 150 pounds doing what we did. It was torture. I am surprised there are not more casualties.”
The worst part of the story? Phillips had to put the weight back after one of The 33 mine sets had an accident, changing the shooting schedule.
“I get a panic call from Patricia Riggen in Colombia. She said one of the sets burned down. I need you to put the weight back on. We’re changing the schedule. It was absolute craziness. I just had to put it back on.”
Phillips did end up losing the weight for the part. As you can see, he looks it. The 33 is now in theaters.
