How Male Love Island Stars Are Cashing In on Their Fame
The hope for most of those that go onto Love Island is that they will come out of the villa and make it big in the world of celebrity. But it…
My Name Is Earl star Ethan Suplee has revealed an ‘uncomfortable conversation’ with a Hollywood star gave him the push he needed to lose weight.
The actor, now, 48, tipped the scales at 550lbs when he was 23-years-old, and after years of yo-yo dieting has finally managed to consistently keep the weight off.
Now committed to his health, strength training and weighing in at around 260lbs, Ethan – also known for starring in blockbusters like Remember The Titans, American History X and The Wolf of Wall Street – has revealed the two pivotal moments which caused him to wake up and turn his life around.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Ethan credited Jim Caviezel with motivating him to make the life-changing decision to slim down.
Ethan revealed he was sitting next to The Passion Of The Christ star on a plane when ‘he basically held a mirror up to me in the conversation and was like, “you are not even aware of your state and your condition”.’
My Name Is Earl star Ethan Suplee has revealed what gave him the push he needed to lose weight (left, in his 20s when he tipped the scales at 550lbs; right now weighing around 260lbs)
Ethan credited The Passion Of The Christ star Jim Caviezel with motivating him to make the life-changing decision to slim down after they had an ‘uncomfortable’ conversation
Ethan added that that his overwhelming love for his wife Brandy Lewis (pictured) and their children also inspired him to make the change
Paying Ethan some hard truths, Jim continued to tell him: ‘you’re gonna wind up in hell and you really need to take a look at yourself’.
Reflecting on the conversation, Ethan mused: ‘I had a conversation with a guy and I left feeling very ashamed and at the time, I was upset by it.
‘But again, in retrospect, I’m so grateful that he had that conversation with me because it was part of the ignition that sent me down this path.’
Taking a moment to look and reflect on his life, Ethan began to ask himself a series of questions: ‘What do I want from my life? Do I want to have comfort? Do I want to feel physically comfortable at any point?
‘Do I want to not have to worry that I have a hand cloth in my pocket so that I can wipe the sweat off my face?
‘Do I want to not have to worry that I have two T-shirts on so that the amount of sweat that I produce doesn’t bleed through and is visible to everybody.
‘Do I not want to have to be early to every airport like by 3 hours because it just takes me so long to get from security to the gate?’
Ethan added that that his overwhelming love for his wife Brandy Lewis and their children also inspired him to make the change, admitting his relationship wouldn’t have survived if he hadn’t turned his life around.
The Butterfly Effect star and Brandy were teenage sweethearts and the pair went on to tie the knot back in 2006.
Parents to four daughters and now also a grandad, Ethan reflected that he had a moment where he realised the future he dreamed of with Brandy would be ‘impossible’ if he didn’t lose weight.
Ethan found fame playing Randy Hickey in the Emmy-winning Noughties comedy series My Name Is Earl (pictured with co-star Jason Lee in 2006)
Ethan and Brandy were teenage sweethearts and the pair went on to tie the knot in 2006
Admitting he was in agony prior to his weight loss, the star equated the feeling to ‘being in hell’ as he explained it was love that helped save him
Reflecting on being in his early twenties he told MailOnline: ‘I’d begun a relationship with the girl who’s now my wife, and we have a bunch of kids and grandkids, and we have like literally a fairytale happily ever after story that I’m very happy with, but at the time we were just dating.’
He explained: ‘I wanted to have this long life with my girlfriend that I knew wa
s impossible if I didn’t do something about my weight.
‘She liked to go to the beach, and I did not like to go to the beach. She liked to go to museums, she liked to go hiking. She liked to go on walks just to enjoy the walk, and I couldn’t do any of that stuff with her.
‘So I was always begging off participating in those activities with her, and I knew it was going to strain our relationship if I didn’t figure something out.’
He added: ‘Now she never asked me to [lose weight], but I knew that in the long term our relationship would not survive if I didn’t confront this.’
Detailing the constant physical pain he was in, he said: ‘It was really uncomfortable for me. I was in hell. I was miserable. I was not comfortable. There was never a moment of any day where I was physically comfortable.
‘It was hard to breathe, it was hard to walk around, I had to have seat belt extensions. There was for a long time, this feeling of “leave me alone and I want the world to change to suit me,” and then I had this conversation and I was like, “that’s never gonna happen”.’
Not long after appearing in My Name is Earl from 2005 to 2009, Ethan began losing weight — and by the time he appeared on the red carpet to promote the film Unstoppable in 2010, he had dropped more than 200lbs.
He explained: ‘I wanted to have this long life with my girlfriend that I knew was impossible if I didn’t do something about my weight’
Ethan also revealed it was an ‘uncomfortable conversation’ with a fellow actor which also gave him the push he needed to take action
However, while Ethan is living a much healthier lifestyle, he admitted losing the weight didn’t solve all his problems like he thought it would.
He confessed: ‘I was thinking really of my weight as an acute thing for the longest time that the solution was losing weight, and if I lost weight, I would be fixed.
‘I think that that kind of enlightenment shift that I was looking for by losing weight, that never happened, but I am more physically comfortable and that’s a big plus point.’
Prior to his weight loss, Ethan also endured a battle with alcohol and drug addiction, and he explained his addiction to food was similar.
However, while he was able to achieve sobriety by abstaining from drugs and alcohol, dealing with his food issues is harder as he still has to eat.
‘With food you can’t be abstinent and so forever I was desperately seeking the quick fixes, the “just don’t eat carbs, because if it’s the carbs’ fault and it has nothing really to do with me”.’
The actor recently shared a before an after to his Instagram as inspiration to keep going in 2025
Explaining how he finally managed to shift his perspective and maintain the weight loss, he said: ‘Well, it really was the realisation that it has nothing whatsoever to do with the food, that it is all entirely my behaviour, my compulsions, my habits.
‘I was using food to soothe myself in the same way that I used drugs and alcohol to soothe myself.’
He added: ‘Eating a proper balanced diet it’s not easy, and it’s never going to be easy, but it isn’t as hard as it was on day one, and that’s good.’
The actor recently shared a before an after to his Instagram as inspiration to keep going in 2025.
‘If you’re six days in and fatigued, keep going, life requires effort. If it’s day one for you, welcome, no excuse should bar you from taking your first step. It does get easier; it never gets easy. That’s life,’ he wrote.’
