30 Seconds To Mars frontman Jared Leto has revealed that gaining weight for film roles has proven to be far more challenging than losing it. 

The star recently shed an incredible 30lbs for his latest movie, 'Dallas Buyers Club', in which he portrays a transgender and HIV positive character named Rayon, and told ShortList magazine that stacking it on to play John Lennon's killer in 'Chapter 27' was surprisingly tougher:

"Gaining weight is far more difficult and damaging. It changes you so much, it's wild. For 'Chapter 27', I was drinking melted Häagen-Dazs, olive oil and soy sauce. Not fun. My cholesterol jumped up and they wanted to put me on Lipitor, a cholesterol drug for older people."

Speaking about shedding weight to play Rayon, Leto added that he quite literally starved himself and it was an emotionally taxing experience:

"To play Rayon, I just ate nothing for weeks. But I think both of them [weight loss and weight gain] are less about how they make you look, and more about how they make you feel."

"In the case of 'Dallas Buyers Club', the weight loss provided a fragility for a character that's addicted to drugs and dying of AIDS, but it's not like you lose the weight and then you're automatically able to deliver the performance. It's just one component in the whole process."