David Harbour Addressed Questions About His Weight in 'DTF St. Louis'

There was a time when David Harbour was the internet's daddy, as both a father figure and a "zaddy" figure, thanks in large part to his role as Eleven's surrogate dad on Stranger Things. He later joined the HBO Max limited series DTF St. Louis, but did a dad bod come with this particular role? Some fans think he gained weight for DTF.

The series follows three middle-aged characters who enter into a love triangle while going through midlife crises. David's character is one of them, and whenever he has his shirt off, he has a stomach that looks larger than his more athletic physique seen toward the end of Stranger Things. Naturally, viewers have questions.

Because of the obvious change in David's weight in DTF, some viewers assumed he underwent a major physical change and simply purposely gained weight for his role. It wouldn't be the first time an actor took control of their weight to become a particular character. However, according to David, that was not the case for DTF.

When David appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers, he discussed how he changed his body and his weight, in a way, for DTF. David said he did "a lot of belly work" in the comedy.

"This is not my actual belly," he revealed on the late-night talk show. "It's so close to my actual belly that I don't need to be wearing a prosthetic at all, but they asked me to gain like 11 pounds, and I was like, 'No, I have to be ripped.' And so, I chose to wear a prosthetic belly."

He joked that "underneath that belly is the same thing." Except, he added, he chose not to gain the 11 pounds that was requested. Instead, he wears a prosthetic in DTF to get that midlife crisis weight without actually putting on the weight himself in real life. But for David's fans, it wouldn't be the first time he drastically changed his body for TV.

David once lost a large amount of weight for Stranger Things for Season 4. He told Men's Health that he lost about 80 pounds from filming Black Widow for filming the fourth season of the Netflix series. So, for some of his fans to assume he willingly gained weight for DTF, it's not out of the realm of possibilities.

Afterward, he told British GQ, he "gained it all back" for his Santa Claus role in the action holiday movie Violent Night, in which he plays a very different sort of gun-toting Santa. And when he returned as Red Guardian for Thunderbolts, he had maintained his more athletic physique. But, prosthetics or not, David never seems afraid to change his body in some way for the right role. That includes DTF St. Louis, even without the actual weight gain.