Hollywood actors themselves warn: don’t try to have their sculptural bodies and don’t get frustrated if you don’t achieve it. Behind those perfect abs there are hours and hours of diets, training and, above all, a lot of sacrifice.

Whether it’s superheroes with superpowers, wizards who hunt monsters or baywatchers who walk around in swimsuits, there are roles for which physical appearance matters a lot. Actors prepare for months to show their best version on screen, but earning the admiration of fans is hard and, although we see them proudly showing off their muscles, what they really hide are hours and hours of strict diets and training and a lot of suffering .

Get it out of your head: not Wolverine, not Geralt of Rivia, not Captain America. Those bodies are real, but not attainable, at least not in a healthy and natural way , and this is what Hugh Jackman, Henry Cavill and Chris Evans have confirmed throughout their careers when asked how they managed to achieve those bodies that we have seen in the blockbusters they have starred in.

Diets based on eating protein without hunger, exercising until you want to vomit or becoming extremely dehydrated are some of the things these actors have had to endure to look ripped on screen. The result is impressive, obviously, but when asked, few say they would gladly do it again.

Hugh Jackman: “Don’t do it at home”

Who better to explain what training consists of and, above all, the diet that actors follow to show off their muscles in films, than the one who has been Wolverine since X-Men was released in 2000. According to Hugh Jackman , who claims to have been thin since birth, what he finds most difficult is not exercise, but food, because “70% is diet, only 30% is training . “

He has said this in more than one interview, although it was during the Logan promo (which was supposed to be the last time we would see him put on his claws), when he explained how actors manage to get that defined look when they have to do a shirtless scene.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in ‘Logan’Cinemamania

“It ends with dehydration… Don’t do this at home ,” he said on Stephen Colbert’s show in 2017. ” You drink 3 gallons of water, and then 36 hours before you shoot, you stop , but because you’ve been drinking so much water, you just keep peeing.” “But that’s a day and a half, if you don’t drink water for three days, you die,” Colbert told him, to which Jackman replied, “Yeah, so you get as close as you can, and then you get your claws on! You lose, like, 10 pounds .”

For Deadpool and Wolverine , the actor has once again had to follow a strict gym and meal routine that he has been sharing on Instagram under the hashtag #becomingwolverineagain (again), where we can see both the physical and mental training required to have those muscles that the film has made sure we see in all their splendor.

Henry Cavill: “You are the most miserable person on the planet”

Another of the most admired for his physique is Henry Cavill , who has enamored the world as Superman and as a hyper fan of all things geeky, which earned him the title of the best  The Witcher that could have been found for the small screen. Dedicated as he is to his character, showing off a certain physique to bring him to life was important, which doesn’t mean he enjoyed it.

“The most important thing is your health , so you can stay fit and not hurt yourself when you’re doing these crazy things like jumping on mattresses and out of planes,” he said on Graham Norton’s show . “Of course you have to look a certain way physically, especially in shirtless scenes, but it’s about staying healthy .  “

Henry Cavill in ‘The Witcher’Cinemamania

But what is horrible, says Cavill, and as Jackman has said, is the dehydration. “That’s the worst part. The diet is hard and you’re hungry, but when you’re dehydrated for three days, you get to a point where you can smell the water around you.” The goal: to show off as much muscle as possible. “It makes your skin very thin and it sits on top of the muscles.”

The actor did clarify, however, that dehydration does not mean that he did not drink water for three days, but that it is a gradual process. “The first day you drink a litre and a half; the second, half a litre; the third, you don’t drink; and, on the fourth, you shoot. Sometimes you don’t shoot the scene until the end of the day and you are the most miserable person on the planet . “

Zac Efron: “I fell into a pretty severe depression”

If there’s anything worse than feeling the pressure of looking ripped on the big screen, it’s looking ripped and shirtless next to Dwayne Johnsson . It was precisely the fear of looking small next to the Rock that pushed Zac Efron to make his physical change for the film Baywatch , something he doesn’t remember with special fondness.

That’s what he said in a 2023 interview with Men’s Health , where he recalled what the preparation process was like to become a vigilante. “I don’t know if the Baywatch look is really achievable ,” he told the magazine. “There’s too little water in the skin, it’s fake, it looks like CGI, it required lasix and strong diuretics to get it ,” he said of his body in the film. “I don’t need to do that, I’d rather have an extra 2 or 3% fat . “

The actor also spoke about the psychological effects of such hard training. “I started to develop insomnia and fell into a pretty severe depression for a long time ,” he explained. “Something about that experience burned me out, it was hard for me to focus again. In the end, they attributed it to taking too many diuretics for too long, and that ruined something.”

Zac Efron in ‘Baywatch’Cinemamania

Taylor Lautner: “It was an absolute nightmare”

Like Zac Efron, teen idols also suffer from being, precisely, that: idols. With the release of Twilight in 2008, the world was divided between those who were Team Edward and those who were Team Jacob, who enjoyed watching Taylor Lautner go from being Bella’s long-haired friend to the muscled werewolf of the pack.

Fans were thrilled with the change, but the actor was less so. Lautner recalled how he felt about having to look a certain way to avoid being replaced in the second film (when he turns into a werewolf) and not disappoint fans. “I started when I was 16, weighed 140 pounds, and had to add 30 pounds of muscle to keep the role ,” he told Yahoo .

” It was an absolute nightmare as far as diet goes: raw sweet potatoes and turkey burgers and protein shakes that were essentially just mud. It was tough. I had to consume at least 5,000 calories a day to maintain the weight I was at .”

Taylor Lautner as Jacob in ‘Twilight’Cinemamania

Chris Evans: “I was like, ‘I need to throw up.'”

Unlike the rest of his fellow actors, food is not what has worried Chris Evans the most every time he has had to put on the Captain America suit . Remember that Rogers is the result of a military experiment, so physically, the actor could not fail to live up to the demands of being a Marvel superhero.

To avoid having to train while making the films, his plan was always a little different than the other actors’, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t tough anyway. “Here’s what happens: you get as big as possible and, as you shoot, you get smaller. You arrive on set as big as possible and you lose mass as you shoot , ” he explained in an interview with journalist Chris Van Vliet .

Chris Evans in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’Cinemamania

But that pre-workout was never fun, as she said in an interview with PopSugar (as picked up by The Hollywood Reporter ). “Normally I like to work out. Going is horrible, but when you get out, you’re like, ‘I’m glad I did it! ‘ This was different,” she explained. “I’d walk out and be like, ‘I need to throw up. I hate the trainer. I hate this movie. I want to sleep for a week.'”

Eating so much also became a nightmare. “I have a fast metabolism and I lose weight very quickly so, for me, getting so big means eating a lot,” she added. “Working out sucked, eating sucked even more. You get to a point where you can’t even look at another piece of chicken. You’re so bloated… But you have to keep eating protein . “

Chris Evans in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’Cinemamania

Christian Bale: “It’s not easy, it’s not fun, it’s horrible”

One of the actors most praised for his changes in look could not be missing. Christian Bale went from eating an apple a day for The Machinist  (2004) to becoming Batman  (2005) and then losing weight in  The Fighter  (2010) and gaining a lot of weight for American Hustle (2013).

It was the fact that a critic called his weight changes a “gimmick” that prompted him to speak out about how hard it is to undergo such workouts and diets. “Honestly, I find it laughable that it’s considered some kind of gimmick, it’s condescending. For God’s sake, don’t people understand what it takes to do it? ” he asked in an interview with Empire Magazine .

“It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s easy for him because he’s done it so many times. ‘ It’s not easy, it’s not fun, it’s horrible . It’s a role I like and he’s an addict. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a fat crack addict. So that’s what you have to do,” he added.

Christian Bale in ‘American Hustle’, ‘The Fighter’ and ‘Batman’Cinemamania