Weight Watchers, step aside! When a film role calls for a plumper look, dedicated actors have accepted the challenge to heap more victuals on their plates. The following cinema stars willingly gained weight for film roles:

• Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey for The Color Purple (1985).

• Lauren Bacall, for How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).

• Robert De Niro, for Raging Bull (1980) to look more like former boxing-great Jake La Motto.

• Janet Jackson, for her film debut in Poetic Justice (1993) to give her a "homegirl" look.

• Christopher Reeve gained 30 pounds, primarily muscle, for the title role in Superman (1978).

• Rod Steiger, for In the Heat of the Night (1967).

• Elizabeth Taylor, to look older and less glamorous, for her Oscar-winning role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

• John Travolta, for Pulp Fiction (1994).

• Toni Collette, for Muriel's Wedding (1994).

• Sylvester Stallone, for Cop Land (1997).

Author: Vicki McClure Davidson

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