If you’ve been seeing pictures of a gaunt Matthew McConaughey looking terrifyingly skinny, don’t worry, he’s not sick. Matthew McConaughey had to drop 30 pounds to play the part of an AIDS patient in “The Dallas Buyer’s Club”.

For the most part, people imagine working as an actor is the best job ever. And sure it does have its perks, but to get popular as an actor you need to make sacrifices. And losing excessive weight is just one of them. Matthew McConaughey dropped 30 pounds for his character in the upcoming production “The Dallas Buyer’s Club”.

The 42-year-old actor is usually buff and looking extremely healthy. But recent pictures of Matthew McConaughey presented the actor in a terrifying light. He had to lose 30 pounds to give life to his new character: an HIV patient who becomes a drug dealer.

And while some of you might think not eating and dropping 30 pounds is an ordeal, Matthew McConaughey told Larry King for him it’s all about cleansing and challenge. “I just kind of dared myself. I haven’t been this light since I was in the ninth grade” revealed Matthew McConaughey.

“It’s a bit of a spiritual cleanse, mental cleanse” the actor told Larry King on the online show Ora TV. “[I’m] drinking a lot of tea” Matthew McConaughey revealed part of his secret to shedding 30 pounds.

So, if you’re looking to lose drastic weight in a short time, you need to know “the first 10 days are much harder than after the first 10 days”. “It takes a while for your body to understand that it has to feed off of itself, and that you’re not going to give it something else from the outside” the once buff actor told Larry King. “I should not look healthy by the time I’m doing this” he warned on Larry King’s show earlier this summer.

Production for “The Dallas Buyer’s Club” is set to start next month. The 42-year-old actor will play Ron Woodroof, a Texan who was diagnosed with AIDS back in the 1980s when he became famous for becoming a drug dealer. Woodroof used to smuggle homeopathic HIV drugs into the United States.