David Harbour Shares His Drastic Weight Loss Journey For 'Stranger Things' 4

Actor David Harbour recently posted pictures showing his huge weight loss for his role in the fourth season of "Stranger Things." The actor plays Jim Hopper, the police chief in the popular Netflix series.

The season three finale of the series saw Harbour's character's capture by the Russian government. While in their custody, he was tortured for around eight months until the next season picked up. When Hopper returned to screen, he was noticeably underweight and covered with scars.

In remembrance of the period, Harbour recently posted some pictures of himself before the weight loss and after. There he mentioned how long it took to lose and maintain the weight. He also revealed that he had put on some extra pounds for another role for a holiday film.

Harbour shed some light on the physical transformation of his character, the police chief, Hopper, in "Stranger Things" in the recent season. The actor previously lost about 80 pounds between seasons three and four of the Netflix series.

He posted a picture of his previous weight and new size on his Instagram page. In the caption, he talked about losing weight and mentioned the personal trainer that saw him through the entire process. The transformation took him around eight months and "another year to keep it through the pandemic."

The caption continued, "All told, it was a difficult and exciting ride, changing diet and exercise plans (or lack thereof)." Harbour then told his followers he would go live on Instagram to answer their questions and inform them of what he had learned in the process.

The fourth season of "Stranger Things" was set in March 1986. This date was eight months from the season three finale when the Battle at Starcourt took place. During that period, the chief police got detained by Russian government officials and tortured in a secret holding facility.

Season four showed Harbour's character after his release from the Russian torture facility and his reunion with Joyce. The previously robust character looked severely underweight and in addition to a whole body of new scars.

In his recent post, the actor also shared a picture of himself on the "shoot day" of the season four finale and highlighted the marks on his body which indicated where the CGI scarring would go. Harbour wrote, "And pic three is the shoot day, the black x's are for cgi scarring because of problems with the practical effect."

Harbour lost over 75 pounds for season four to achieve the underweight look. The loss reduced his 270 pounds in the third season to 190 while filming the following season. The actor revealed that he recently added some extra weight for a role in a film that will be released this holiday.

He wrote, "Recently ballooned up again to play jolly ole St. Nick in a flick I can't wait for you to see this holiday season. So I am struggling to fight back down towards a good weight for wherever Hopper ends up in season five."

The actor added that he didn't think losing weight and gaining so rapidly was good for the body, and as a result, he would have to stop it soon. However, he said the process was "a fun part of the job" because he could "live in a different version" of his skin for the time being, no matter how small.

Harbour previously revealed that after losing weight, he had to enlist the aid of facial prosthetics while filming some of Hopper's flashback moments. He had initially requested that any flashbacks should be shot during the end of season three, but the script for those scenes wasn't written yet. To rectify the weight loss issue, prosthetics were placed on his face when filming the scene that showed how the Russian government captured Hopper.

Besides Harbour, several actors in Hollywood have added some pounds or lost it to fit the roles for films or tv shows. This is usually so the performers can display their characters' changes according to the different periods in the same movie.

They also do so to look more like the characters they are playing, making them appear more accurate for the duration of the story. Hilary Swank practiced this when the actor got around 19 pounds in muscle for a role as a boxer.

Several other celebrities, while changing, have asked their followers to refrain from talking about their bodies. Jonah Hill did something similar in October 2021 when he asked people to refrain from talking about his body, revealing that comments were not helpful, nor did they make him feel good.