David Harbour is done being pestered about his “Stranger Things ” weight loss — and finally let fans on social media know what he’s been going through.
Harbour said he lost nearly 80 pounds as his character, Hawkins police chief Jim Hopper, withered as a Russian prisoner, according to Insider . He posted before and after photos on Instagram Thursday and talked about his grueling diet and exercise program.
“Many of you have asked me about Hopper’s physical transformation from season 3 to season 4,” Harbour wrote in the caption . “My trainer @davidhigginslondon worked with me for 8 months to make the transformation, and then another year to keep it through the pandemic.”
Season 4 picked up eight months after Season 3’s “Battle at Starcourt” finale, which saw Harbour’s character captured and imprisoned by Russians. Viewers were stunned to see Hopper return transformed — from a 270-pound local law enforcer to a Siberian gulag inmate of 190 pounds.
The first images in Harbour’s post were a collage chronicling his physical change for the show’s latest season. The actor confessed that “it was a difficult and exciting ride, changing diet and exercise plans (or lack thereof).”
He continued: “Second pic is me and David the week we began, my resistances and fury flaring. And pic three is the shoot day ... All told I lost over 75lbs. 265-270 in season 3 and all the way down to 190 when we shot.”
The actor revealed that he “recently ballooned up again” to play Santa Claus in an upcoming movie called “Violent Night” — and is “struggling to fight back down towards a good weight.”
“All this up and down is not good for the body, and I’ll have to give it up soon, but it is such a fun part of the job to live in a different version of your skin for a while,” wrote Harbour.
For “Stranger Things” fans who immediately binged the latest episodes and can’t wait for more, co-creator Ross Duffer recently revealed the lapse between seasons should be much shorter this time. Shooting hasn’t yet begun, but Season 5 is already fully mapped out.
“We’re going to take a little vacation in July,” Duffer told Collider . “And then we’re going to come back. I know that the writer’s room is going to start in that first week of August.”
If you’re struggling with an eating disorder, call the National Eating Disorder Association hotline at 1-800-931-2237.
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