Some photos had already revealed McConaughey's rail-thin appearance to play an AIDS patient in the film, but you can see much more of it-- and what looks like a fascinating story-- in the first trailer above, dug up by The Film Stage. Of course, you have to suffer through another godforsaken Entertainment Tonight voiceover, but if you've been anticipating the film as much as I have, it's worth it.
And it's clear from this trailer alone that McConaughey could easily be overshadowed by another actor who also significantly changed his appearance for the role. Jared Leto, whom Nancy O'Dell reminds us weighed as little as 116 pounds during filming, is playing his most significant film role in years as Rayon, a fellow AIDS patient and trans* person who helps McConaughey's character organize the "Dallas Buyers Club," which smuggles in HIV treatment drugs from Mexico. Leto's emaciated physique made for some terrifying photos but already seems to be paying off here-- you see Rayon not just as an actor dressing up in women's clothes for a role, but as a genuinely scarred and sick human being. Leto's never been afraid to transform himself for roles in the past, packing on pounds to play John Lennon's assassin John David Chapman in Chapter 27.
