Tobey Maguire's tough transformation from Spiderman to Taliban captive

Melbourne, March 14 : Tobey Maguire has come a long way from his Spiderman days to the role of a Taliban captive in war drama Brothers.

The actor ditched the bulging biceps and quads to acquire a gaunt face and nearly paper-thin body to portray a traumatised returned soldier.

Maguire revealed he undertook a drastic weight-loss regime coupled with a strict diet and two-hour cardio workouts twice a day, something that fell short of impressing his wife, Jennifer Meyer.

"She said I was not very pleasant to be around for most of the movie," the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying.

"I was very skinny - the hip bones and the whole thing - but also I was in a humourless mood. I was on so few calories relative to the amount of exercise I was doing, if I stood up too quickly, my vision would go black, I would get faint and I'd have to grab on to something to keep from falling over," he added.