Harry Melling has undergone a significant weight loss since the time he played the overweight bratty Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter franchise, which has rendered him unrecognizable. His massive transformation has sparked the curiosity of people about how and why he lost weight, but the Pale Blue Eye cast has always maintained that weight loss was not a conscious decision on his part and just something that happened. Harry Melling has rejected the narrative that he lost his weight to disassociate himself from the character he played.
Harry Melling is an English actor who is most known for playing Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter franchise. He has also appeared in The Lost City of Z and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. In 2020, he starred as a villain in The Old Guard, and as a brilliant yet arrogant chess player in The Queen’s Gambit. He also did The Devil All the Time. He recently appeared in The Pale Blue Eye.
People were unable to recognize him in the murder mystery and didn’t believe it when they found that he was Dudley Dursley from Harry Potter. He had a significant weight loss since then and had a massive physical transformation. He looked nothing like the fat bratty cousin of Harry. This transformation sparked a lot of curiosity about how and why he did it. Let’s find out more about Harry Melling’s weight loss!
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Harry Melling’s Weight Loss: The Queen’s Gambit Actor Didn’t Lose Weight Consciously!
So, Netflix is back with a murder-mystery thriller The Pale Blue Eye starring Christian Bale and Harry Melling. You all know Christian Bale. But do you also know Harry Melling? You do, you may not know that you do but you do know him. It all depends on whether you recognize him or not, from one of the most successful and acclaimed film franchises there is. He was thrust into the spotlight when he played Harry Potter‘s spoiled cousin Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter franchise.
And now, he looks completely unrecognizable. People who can place Harry Melling as Dursely would be rare to find because today, he is completely different compared to his adolescent self, which is all thanks to his incredible and unbelievable weight loss. He had a full makeover and amazing transformation after he lost a significant amount of weight after playing Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films.
The actor’s weight loss began in 2009 after which his new slim physique almost got him out of the franchise because recasting for the part of Dudley was being considered as he no longer fit the role. However, Harry Melling continued on by wearing a fat bodysuit that increased the appearance of his build, and prosthetic makeup to make him resemble his old self. He told The Movie Network at the time,
I do look a bit different because Dudley was a very piggish character and about 3 years ago I lost quite a considerable amount of weight. It was quite funny because I had a big fat suit on in this film and face prosthetic. It was bizarre, you feel really big and my mobility was affected. However it is amazing to feel light but within someone that should feel really heavy, so that was a fascinating contrast.
By now, you might have realized that and might be wondering ‘how the h*ll did he lose so much weight, what diet plans did he stick to, and what workout and exercise did he do,’ then you would be shocked to know the answer. That is Harry Melling did absolutely nothing, put no effort at all, to lose all that weight. He insists that his weight loss was not a conscious decision and was “just something that happened“.
Harry Melling has always rejected the narrative that he underwent weight loss to try and disassociate himself from the fat, spoiled character by changing his appearance. People always suspected that he wanted to distance himself from the character depicted as overweight and described by himself as piggish. Dudley was said to have piggy eyes and double chins anymore. Why would anybody want to stay that way when they were always mocked because of that?
Harry Melling also probably didn’t and after the weight loss, he was no longer that ‘piggish’ boy which was great for him but still, he did not lose weight for that reason or for any other reason. As he has repeatedly maintained, it just happened. And he understands that people would find fascination in his transformation and even would want to know why and how he did it, but he is not interested in all that.
I went to drama school when I was 18 and that’s kind of where the weight shifted, not for any sort of major need on my side, but it’s just something that just happened.
Even though his weight loss might not have been a conscious decision on his part, Harry Melling has found that it has been a sort of a blessing to him because he didn’t get recognized as a result of his transformation as he did theatre, lots of it when he went to the drama school. So, he had this history of being part of the films but also the opportunity to cause a new start, which he thought was very useful.
When Harry Melling was asked about weight loss in terms of shedding the Harry Potter association, he argued that one can be an actor in whatever shape they wanted to be but still, he conceded that the transformation makes people see actors in a different way and maybe even opens up different casting opportunities. He also revealed that he had always been interested in actors that transform and “so maybe that’s where the instinct to do that came from.”
Speaking to The Telegraph about his weight loss, he had said,
I was doing a show at the National Youth Theatre, playing an old man. Before that I had played fat clowns and I thought, ‘If I want to have the career I would like, I am going to have to lose weight.’
Maybe Harry Melling was always subconsciously poised to undergo weight loss and that major transformation and that’s why it just happened.
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