50 Cent Gives the Scoop on Dramatic Weight Loss

The shocking photo of 50 Cent's 54-pound weight loss this week had us wondering a great many things. Now Fiddy is speaking out on the nine-week regimen that took him from 214 pounds to a slender -- and bony -- 160 pounds for a film role.

"Towards the end it was really difficult," 50 Cent, whose real name Curtis Jackson, told Parade Magazine (via Huffington Post). "It was like, if I don't get close enough to what my best friend looked like to me at that point before he passed, then I'm not doing the story any justice."

Jackson, 33, told the AP when he was shot in the mouth in 2000, he faced a similar liquid-only diet and saw his weight dip to 157 pounds.

"This time it was a lot tougher for me," 50 said. "I had to discipline myself not ... to actually have myself be in the physical state to convey the energy I felt. It's a passion project for me."

Jackson told Parade when his weight began to drop drastically, his manager pleaded with him to see a doctor. "I just didn't want to go because I had to match the look in my mind. I was so into what I was doing that I wasn't really concerned with that," "I just kept looking at myself in the mirror feeling like I have to be smaller."

The rapper said he thinks "the world took note" because comparisons were made with transformative actors like Christian Bale and Tom Hanks. Bale famously lost 63 pounds for 'The Machinist' in 2004 and a similar amount for 2006's 'Rescue Dawn.' "There is no way to play a role like this without really committing to it," 50 Cent said.

The AP reports Jackson researched actors like Hanks and Bale. "I actually got on the computer," he said. "When it started getting difficult, I was looking to see what their experience was like and I got a chance to see all of the interviews they had at different time periods when they were doing promotion for the projects."

50 told the AP he doesn't expect to win any awards for his role, and that he's boosted his weight back to a healthy (for a rugged, 6-foot fellow) 198 pounds. Jackson said the now-infamous photo was taken at the beginning of the second half of his film 'Things Fall Apart,' which details a cancer-stricken football player.

Earlier this week, 50 told Us Weekly he spent nine weeks on a regimen of liquids and three-hour-a-day treadmill sessions.