Chris Hemsworth warned over ‘dangerous’ diet

Matt Damon implored Chris Hemsworth not to follow his “dangerous” starvation diet when the actor turned to him for weight loss advice for his role in new movie In The Heart Of The Sea.

Hemsworth, best known for his role as muscular superhero Thor, slimmed down dramatically to play a shipwrecked sailor but was warned off the diet that Damon used to lose 50lbs for his 1996 film Courage Under Fire, which left him taking medication for a year for adrenal gland damage.

He said Damon told him, “Look, I had no education then. It was basically eat nothing for four months”.

He continued: “He said it’s dangerous to do it that way. He said there’s much better ways of doing it so seek the advice of a nutritionist.”

Hemsworth plays First Mate Owen Chase in the tale of the real-life Nantucket whaling ship The Essex, which was destroyed by a whale in 1820 and left its crew to survive for 90 days at sea and was the inspiration for Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick.

The cast of the film saw their calories cut to just 500 a day.