How Ben Foster ‘Damaged’ His Body While Preparing to Play Lance Armstrong

Ben Foster Photo by: Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

Ben Foster might’ve gone a little too far while getting ready to play Lance Armstrong in the upcoming biopic The Program.

The Boston-born actor recently revealed that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his preparation for the role, which he believes “definitely damaged” his body.

Foster opened up about his dangerous tactic for getting into character while speaking to the BBC at the BFI London Film Festival over the weekend. While he explains that he only used “legal” drugs and was constantly under a doctor’s supervision, it took him a while to get his levels back to normal.

“You can Google and look at what performance enhancing drugs can do to you, if you’re not really careful,” Foster said. “I had a great doctor which helped me handle some of those consequences. But it took about half a year to get my levels right and I would say for any athlete, you have to ask, ‘Where are your values?'”

Foster deserves some props for his commitment to the role, but he should’ve listened to South Park‘s Mr. Mackey. Drugs are bad. Mmkay?

Armstrong famously ignored that advice as well as he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from cycling for life in 2012 when it was revealed that the he had used a variety of doping methods during his career.

The upcoming film about the scandal is based on journalist David Walsh’s book Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong, which chronicles the time he spent trying to expose the cyclist before finally being vindicated at the controversy’s conclusion three years ago. Walsh is being played by Bridesmaids actor Chris O’Dowd in the flick.

While The Program hits theaters in the U.K. on Friday, it won’t be making its way across the pond until sometime next year.