Hugh Jackman says filming 'Les Miserables' was a ''harrowing'' experience.

The Australian actor and his co-stars, including Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried, faced a gruelling 68-day shoot which saw them lose dramatic amounts of weight for Tom Hooper's musical take on Victor Hugo's classic novel about the French Revolution.

Hugh shed 15 pounds for the role before gorging on food to gain 30 more to emulate his alter ego Jean Valjean's growing success.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: ''It was a harrowing emotional experience. But in the end, it was worth it... I was eating anything I could. If ever there are any outtakes, there's a lot of me burping.''

The 44-year-old star was the first actor to express interest in the role of the heroic former convict and described his first meeting with 'The King's Speech' director in June 2011 as a full-on audition.

He joked that what started out as singing a couple of songs turned into an intense workshop, saying: ''This was the first time it went from being an intellectual idea to a reality for Tom. After three hours, I put up my hand and said, 'I gotta put my kids to bed!' ''

However, the toughest shoot of all for the Broadway enthusiast was the tough sequence filmed in Gourdon, France, which sees convicts dragging a ship into port while being knocked over by waves.

Hugh explained: ''It was 12 degrees, and the water was coming straight off the ocean. We were there for three days.''

Anne Hathaway also suffered for her art and shed a huge amount of weight as well as chopping off her long locks.

She said: ''I just had to stop eating, all for a total of 13 days' shooting.''

Anne also had to slim down to fit into her Catwoman suit for action movie 'The Dark Knight Rises' earlier this year, and those who are keen to see the original outfit from the film, as well as the one Christian Bale wore to portray Batman and Tom Hardy donned to star as Bane, can visit the Virgin Media store in Westfield, Stratford, east London, this weekend.

The costumes will be on public display at the store on Saturday (08.12.12) and Sunday (09.12.12) before heading back to the Warner Bros. studio in Los Angeles.