Bonus: Benedict Cumberbatch on the health toll of weight gain and loss as an actor

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.

0:30Experience cloud-like comfort with high-resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing. The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity, and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime. Check out washablesofas.com and get up to 60 % off your Anabay sofa, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not absolutely in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping or restocking fees. Every penny back. Upgrade now at washablesofas.com. offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply you are listening to ruthie's table four in partnership with montclair well tell me about being a vegan i was a vegan for a while yeah tell me about being a vegan or a vegan i'm also i'm a vague vegan i was a vague vegan i mean i guess my friends would love hearing that because i sort of suppose i was i i didn't give up eggs i've been interested in ethical consumerism for a while so that's what made me go for it for about 18 months.

1:30How did you feel on it? Did you feel better? Well, it wasn't great, no, for me. And I don't think I ever got it quite right. I was pretty gassy Ruthie, I'll tell you that now because we're friends and I'm not vegan anymore so there's no excuse but I was pretty gassy and I just, the thing that tipped it for me actually was weirdly I had to lose weight for a job called the Courier about a man who was imprisoned in Russia in a gulag having been caught trying to get a friend of his out the highest ranking soviet official that ever turned informer during the cold war called penkovsky colonel penkovsky anyway in that story this real man you know a salesman with a very portly appearance uh went into a russian gulag for nearly two and a half years and came out in the same clothes of his show trial in moscow where he was looking scared but still quite returned and he just it looked like a different human being you wouldn't believe that it was the same clothes obviously had a shaved head but he also just looked skeletal i thought i've got to honor this and we didn't have the budget to sfx it so i just thought i've got to honor that's the least i could do he went through a gulag for two and a half years so you didn't have to but it's amazing that you did no and as and i was lucky enough to be producing that one you know that you did that thank you but i was lucky enough to produce it so i guess i had a a little bit of a you know a leeway to to make it work we downed tools for three months and the vegan diet was perfect it was really perfect but i did a lot i did it really healthily i didn't stop eating i didn't eat a tiny bit less near the end but the point is it was a lot of exercise cold water swimming calisthenics and yoga and all that stuff and i just i did it the healthy way and then the last sort of two weeks is where it got weird and they went you can't have any fiber now because that's water retentive so well that i'm my my diet is entirely fibrous because it's vegetables and fruit and well gotta eat some lean meat i'm afraid if you want to lose those final pounds i was like oh shit so I did I had some steak and it was uh not particularly nice I'd had a few moments of leaning across to a friend's plate in you know vegan land for 18 months ago can I just have a little one tiny bit and didn't sort of throw up or get back on the meat wagon but this was a pure diet of meat for two weeks and I was really like this is horrendous it's such a complete kind of turnaround and then the last day was caffeine and skittles and other sugar yeah which sounds great but actually it's just horrible that trucker's diet but it it's what bodybuilders do it it it dehydrates your cells so that they wrap around your muscle and your whatever tissues left and your bones do not try this at home people it's horrendous and but it gave me that really startling bit of weight loss for what was literally four scenes anyway so i did that and then afterwards instead of going right now back on the barbecue i kind of craved salad and fruit that's all i wanted to eat so I went back on the vegetables and then I couldn't put the weight on and I wasn't feeling very healthy yeah and I was vegan for a bit after we wrapped on the film and then I went I think I think I I think I do need that iron I think I do every night again so yeah but it's you know it's good meat it's well sourced quality um stuff that I have and it's it's rare it's rare I was talking to Hugh Jackman who was coming over and he's a friend and so he was talking about coming to the river cafe and he said you know i'm i'm doing i can't remember what the film was we said i have to i have i'm on this really strict strict strict diet and so i'm not sure about coming you know to the river cafe i said you know we can help you with that we can do this he said no ruthie you don't understand i have to gain a huge amount of weight and i have something like a 6 000 calorie diet per day i have to but it's very you just can't eat you know the calories you have to he had to do it so carefully and i thought you know what what is this profession where you have to you know you know play gain and you do you know you gain weight you lose weight you go on a diet you work out so you look muscular or you starve you know you don't work out so you look emaciated it's a very and you're an actor you know is there it's i think you have to take your your health has to it takes a bit of a kicking and i think we're learning more i mean you know Tom Hanks has type 2 diabetes from weight gain and loss.

5:44Oh, really? Yeah, and he's talked about that publicly, I think, so it's fine to mention. But it is damaging.

5:53Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table 4 in partnership with Montclair.

6:03Tired of spills and stains on your sofa? Washablesofas.com has your back. featuring the Anabay Collection, the only designer sofa that's machine washable inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices. That's right, sofas start at just$699. Enjoy a no-risk experience with pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and changeable slipcovers made with performance fabrics. Experience cloud-like comfort with high-resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing. The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity, and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime. Check out washablesofas.com and get up to 60 % off your Anabay sofa, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

6:48If you're not absolutely in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping or restocking fees. Every penny back. Upgrade now at washablesofas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Parking shouldn't slow you down. ParkWiz gives every driver a shortcut. Book ahead, save up to 50 % and skip the hassle of circling the block. Park smarter, park faster. ParkWiz. Download the ParkWiz app today and save every time you park. This is an iHeart Podcast.