Why the 5,000-calorie diets and punishing workout routines actors go through to transform into a comic book hero could be more harmful than Kryptonite.
Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine
Via: Ben Rothstein / 20th Century Fox
In the opening moments of The Wolverine, a shirtless Hugh Jackman as the title mutant hero saves the life of a Japanese solider just as the A-bomb is dropped over Nagasaki. Thick veins pop on Jackman's massive arms and shoulders as he holds down the metal shield protecting the soldier underneath and his body withstands the terrible heat of the nuclear blast. When the solider finally emerges, he stands in horrified awe as the Wolverine's super-crispy body slowly heals itself back into its perfect, imposing shape. You can almost see him thinking, "My god, who is this man? And how did he get such enormous shoulders?"
For decades, superheroes lived almost exclusively on the page, their bodies limited only by the imaginations of the artists drawing them. Today, however, a small stable of actors are working mightily to mold their bodies to live up to their respective characters' superhero physiques. In turn, many fans have obsessively dissected those actors' grueling workout routines and absurd 5,000-calorie-or-more diets with a breathlessness rarely devoted to their actual performances on screen. We gape in awe not only at the fictional feats of Superman, Batman, and the Wolverine, but at the seemingly superhuman efforts to physically become those characters in the first place.
But rarely do we ask: at what cost?
As pedantic as it may seem to say, these actors aren't superheroes. "When actors come to me," says Los Angeles personal trainer Mark Wildman, "most are essentially theater nerds. They're not athletes." Wildman specializes in preparing actors so they can just begin the punishing week-long training regimens they may have to undergo if they're cast in physically demanding roles. Because should an actor land the part of a muscular stud with ripped abs, sinewy tree-trunk legs, and arms the size of a small child, the process of getting that body is fraught with real risks to both that actor's short- and long-term health.
The biggest risk is the weight gain itself, especially for an actor who hasn't been regularly training prior to landing the role. Take Chris Pratt. In 2011, when the Parks and Recreation star landed a role in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty as a member of Seal Team Six (arguably as close to actual superheroes as our puny real world has), he had roughly five to six month to get his schlubby body looking like it belonged to an elite Navy soldier. He did it, but as Pratt later told Conan O'Brien, after Zero Dark Thirty wrapped midway through 2012, he immediately gained 60 pounds to play a fat loser in another feature film. Just a few months later, Pratt landed the lead role in Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy — and had to lose the weight all over again to become even more ripped than he was the first time. And then there's the Dark Knight himself, Christian Bale, who has veered from buff to gaunt to beefy to gangly, again and again, for over a decade.
Chris Pratt in early 2012
Source: youtube.com
