John Goodman showed up to the Smurfs premiere in Los Angeles on July 13 looking like a completely different person. The 73-year-old walked the red carpet in a suit, smiling and showing off a 200-pound weight loss that fans could not ignore.
Photos from the event quickly spread online, and people had a lot to say. One person commented: “He has that Ozempic face,” while others argued over whether his transformation was from hard work or something else.
Goodman has talked about his weight loss before. He once said he was “sick and tired of looking” at himself and decided it was time to make a real change.
He told ABC News in 2016: “I just stopped eating all the time. I’d have a handful of food and it’d go to my mouth. I was just eating all the time. I was just eating alcoholically.”
He said that years ago, he would lose 60 or 70 pounds in a few months and then blow it all by “rewarding” himself with a six-pack of beer and going back to old habits. This time, though, he chose a slower approach with daily movement and consistent effort.
He explained: “This time I wanted to do it slowly, move, exercise. I’m getting to the age where I can’t afford to sit still anymore. And it gives me the energy to work, ’cause work is very draining.”
His health coach, Mackie Shilstone, helped him stick to a Mediterranean-style eating plan with seafood, vegetables, legumes, and olive oil. Goodman also exercised six days a week and hit 10,000 to 12,000 steps daily.
He gave up alcohol, used a treadmill, got into boxing, and focused on portion control. He said: “It was basically just portion control, and ‘I don’t need it.’ I was just shoving everything into my mouth.”
The actor voices Papa Smurf in the new animated film releasing July 18 and said in an interview: “You’re only as good as what’s on the page and what your companions bring to it. And we’ve got a pretty good cast of characters here. So I think it’s going to turn out good.”
Outside of that, Goodman will appear in the upcoming film Judy with Tom Cruise. While filming in England, he fractured his hip.
He said: “Tom was like the first guy there when I fell down. Luckily his doctor was on the set, so I got surgery the next morning. They took very good care of me.”
Some fans online said he looked better before. Others joked about his suit fitting weird or that he looked like “a raisin.” But most agreed the change was huge, and whether they liked it or not, it’s clear John Goodman has put in serious effort to turn things around.
