Paul Walter Hauser Admits Weight Cost Him Hollywood Roles

I, Tonya star Paul Walter Hauser opened up to People about his struggles with weight loss, admitting that his frame has certainly cost him acting roles.

The actor, who recently announced his transition into professional wrestling, shared that he lost 40 pounds for his Emmy winning role on the Apple TV+ series Black Bird. “I put some of that weight back on, and now I'm bringing it back down,” Hauser admitted.

Now, Hauser is eyeing a 246-pound goal weight, something he thinks is entirely within reach. "Slowly but surely, I'm going to be chipping away at that,” he reported, explaining that he’s at a point in his career where he’s hungry for different acting opportunities.

“I've played every type of chubby, misguided person,” he reflected. “I don't need to play 900 more.”

Hauser’s breakout role came as Tonya Harding’s dim-witted muscle in I, Tonya (2017). He soon followed with similar roles in Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman (2018) and Da 5 Bloods (2020), as well as Richard Jewell (2019), Queenpins (2021), and Cruella (2021). He’s gearing up to play comedian Chris Farley in an upcoming biopic, but after that Hauser has every intention of slimming down.

“Chris Farley will be my last very heavy-set role in which I am on paper and visually overweight. I have every intention to get the weight down, like Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen and all these other guys who have done it,” Hauser promised. “I'm done with that version of that character.”

The actor, who got sober in 2021, admitted that in the past, staying healthy and fit has “been very elusive, very hard for me…[Food] is still that thing where it becomes a comfort or an outlet. And unfortunately, everybody eats! You got to eat a couple times a day, so it's always there—whereas I can not buy marijuana and not buy alcohol, and it feels very distant.”

Hauser went on to say, “I look forward to being healthy” because he wants to be “around for a long time for my kids and my wife.” He’s also looking forward to “seeing what else I can do” on-screen. “[Let’s] see if I can compete with the Ben Fosters and the Ryan Goslings!”