Given that he lost a staggering 60 pounds for the part, exactly how David Harbour lost so much weight for Stranger Things season 4 has been perplexing many viewers. As far back as Stranger Things season 1, star David Harbour’s body has played a surprisingly big role in the series. In the opening scenes of the show’s pilot, Stranger Things depicted Harbour’s bedraggled police chief Hopper waking up from a night of heavy drinking with his sizable gut on full display.

Hopper’s "dad bod" was a stark contrast from the more chiseled leading men that viewers have come to expect on television, and the Netflix hit doubled down on this in Stranger Things season 3. One problematic subplot from that divisive season saw the belligerent Hopper making boorish passes at his love interest Joyce Byers, and the actor’s massive, muscular frame was a reminder that the character wasn’t always the harmless teddy bear that many viewers thought of him as. However, Stranger Things season 4 introduced a new, much slimmer version of Hopper, and the actor put a lot of work into the dramatic transformation that echoed the big changes his character went through.

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Harbour lost 60 pounds to play Hopper in Stranger Things season 4, dropping the weight around the same time that he shot flashback scenes for Marvel’s Black Widow. Harbour’s weight loss was a lot of work as the actor needed to portray a beaten-down, brutalized Hopper trapped alone in a remote Russian prison camp. However, while the process was grueling, Harbour’s method of losing weight was a lot less complicated than many body transformations actors undergo. Per the actor himself: “It’s amazing. You try to do all these different things, the protein and the this and that, and then you just stop eating, and you lose weight.” Of course, just because this method proved effective doesn’t mean it was necessarily safe or medically sound. Harbour himself admitted as much, saying “I was just hungry a lot of the shoot,” and admitting that the huge weight loss likely impacted his performance. The actor said of his 60-pound drop that “I think you’ll see it’s not very good for me, mentally and nutritionally” and the evidence for this claim is easy to find in Stranger Things season 4.

Why David Harbour Lost So Much Weight For Stranger Things Season 4

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Much like Robert DeNiro’s many body transformations informed his roles over the years, Harbour’s lean frame and exhausted visage make his worn-down, demoralized Hopper a lot more believable throughout Stranger Things season 4. Harbour lost the weight to make his portrayal of a prison camp inmate more impactful, although there was an ironic side to this transformation. This isn’t the first time that Harbour has portrayed a character who spent time in a secret Russian prison and underwent a dramatic change, with the Stranger Things star also dropping the weight to play a younger version of his Black Widow character Red Guardian in flashbacks.

Since the Marvel movie was shooting at the same time as Stranger Things season 4, Harbour technically lost the weight to play a Russian prisoner after putting on the weight in the first place to play another Russian prisoner. Hopper’s Stranger Things transformation couldn’t have been less like his Black Widow role, with both parts demanding opposing physical transformations from the star. Fortunately, however, Harbour was able to line up his shooting schedule and ensure that he only needed to go through the intense 60-pound weight loss that Stranger Things season 4 required once.

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Episodes of Stranger Things season 4 are now available on Netflix

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