Schoenaerts spills on weight gain

Matthias Schoenaerts has revealed how he had to tuck into ice-cream to pile on the pounds for his role in Rust And Bone.

The Belgian actor hit the fast food after being asked by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard to put on weight to portray street fighter Ali in the French drama, which also stars Marion Cotillard.

"I had to gain some weight because Jacques wanted me to look strong, but at the same time, he didn't want me to look fit because my character is almost homeless and doesn't have the means to be good to himself," he explained.

"So he eats a lot of junk and probably didn't work out for a long time. I needed to grow a little belly so I ate a lot of Haagen-Daz and all that kind of c***."

Matthias admitted that the bare knuckle fight routines were quite scary.

"I was in front of some big guys, who are professional fighters, and they scared the hell out of me. We had to be pretty precise. I thought, I want to be ready for these guys because I don't want to run into an accident with these guys," he said.

The 34-year-old added: "The scenes are pretty violent and very brutal because it's bare knuckle street fighting so we really had to rehearse over and over again. It was intense, but I think everything with Jacques is intense. It's never easy."

:: Rust And Bone is in cinemas now.