Christian Bale is a serious actor, and he's proven it by going as far as to change his physique to fit a role. He's muscled up, skinnied down, gone back to a normal weight, and now he's on the other end of the scale, packing on 43 pounds for his latest role.

The 39-year old plays a '70s conman-turned-FBI agent in "American Hustle."

"I ate lots of doughnuts, a whole lot of cheeseburgers and whatever I could get my hands on. I literally ate anything that came my way," Bale revealed to People magazine. "I was about 185 and went up to 228."

Here's what he looks like with the extra weight:


And here he is, beneath the shirt:


Zooming in:


For his role as an industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year, in "The Machinist," Bale lost 63 pounds by adopting a diet of apples, coffee and cigarettes:


Bale also lost weight when he played a boxer-turned-drug addict in "The Fighter," and won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Dicky Eklund:


But his 8-year-old daughter approved of his new look: "She found it funny. Having a big old gut and a bald head, she would slap it and tease me. She had lots of fun and found it amusing."

However, Bale has struggled to take off the weight since filming ended, telling People "I'm still working it off."

Here's what he looked like at a screening in NYC earlier this month: