How is it that Michael Clark Duncan , star of The Green Mile has lost 90 lbs over the past year and nobody noticed? I interviewed Duncan at the junket for School for Scoundrels recently and he is looking great, still a large man a 6’5 and around 270 lbs but not nearly as mammoth as he once was. He stepped into the room with that awesome presence of his and boomed a verbal assault at writer/director Todd Phillips for a surprisingly embarrassing scene that Phillips tricked him into filming. Then he sat down right and was very candid about his weight and life.
A somewhat serious Duncan explained the main reason for his new healthy lifestyle, apparently a visit to the doctor had a lot to do with it. “I was at 362 lbs and my doctor walked in and he sat down and you know he just looked at me and said can I tell you something? And I said nope. And he said are you sure and I said yep. …and I said don’t ever tell me I don’t want to know….. and he said are you sure and I said positive and then we shook hands. After that I just started training harder.” Duncan said he has stopped eating red meat and doesn’t indulge in sweets late at night anymore, he has also stopped eating as much fried foods.
Good for him. He’s a funny, charming guy who acts well with whatever role he is given and when faced with bad news from his doctor he decided to fix what he knew was one of the top factors for health problems in his life.
But back to my question, how on earth did nobody notice Duncan’s 90 lb loss?
Well with the current trend of having celebrity stick figures on magazine covers daily, stars having gastric bypasses and people cutting the excess skin off their bodies from such rapid weight loss perhaps a guy losing the equivalent of Nicole Richie over the course of a year and doing it by simply making healthier food choices just isn’t exciting news.
But to me it’s the kind story that should be out there, it is positive inspiration for eating healthy and is much healthier than the “thinspiration” photos floating around on the net and magazine rack.
