What Superhero Actors Really Eat

Taking on the role of an iconic superhero is a huge undertaking for an actor. Not only do they have to deliver a performance that honors the character's story and pleases a rabid fanbase, but they've got to look incredible while doing so. This means long, grueling hours at the gym and more often than not, a strict diet many people would ditch by the end of day one.

While noshing on broccoli, brown rice, and grilled chicken for six months might sound like punishment, it's often necessary. In addition to having to perform fight scenes and daring stunts, the actors are often in clunky and heavy suits. Ben Affleck's Batsuit, for example, weighed around 75 pounds. It would be incredibly difficult to wear that for an eight-hour shooting day if you weren't in great shape.

Dedication to craft aside, let's not kid ourselves — even the most bland nutrition plan is worth it when at the end of the road is a multi-million dollar payday.

That said, if you're looking for the diet secrets that the stars are using to get superhero shredded, read below and maybe you can look as good as the Man of Steel.  

Pratt of course isn't the only Chris in Hollywood who's saved the universe from supervillains. Marvel fans have watched Chris Hemsworth put Thor's mighty hammer to good use both with The Avengers and 2017's Thor: Ragnarok. But one can't go around swinging that hammer unless their biceps can back it up, and the Aussie bulked up to do so.

Oddly enough, this didn't mean continuously eating 3,000 calorie meals of steak, but adopting the complete opposite — a vegan diet. According to his trainer, he went high-protein while he was preparing for the film, but switched to vegan while filming was underway.

"For Thor he would eat six times a day, said Hemsworth's trainer Luke Zocchi. "Clean proteins, veg, brown rice." In a separate interview, he explained, "We're all in this mentality of 'gotta eat animal protein, protein, protein' but you can get a lot of protein from beans."

Rice and beans alone won't have you looking like the god of thunder though, and in addition to heavy weight training, Hemsworth also kept fit through sports like surfing and martial arts. "I'll do a ton of boxing or Muay Thai workouts," the actor told Men's Health. "I surf a ton and I do a lot of yoga, too."

Sci-fi fans are well aware that Zoe Saldana is a total tour de force when it comes to playing a badass onscreen. Besides starring in blockbusters of the genre like Avatar and the Star Trek films, she's helped save the universe twice as Gamora in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.

Before joining on for the second Guardians film, Saldana set out to lose the baby weight from having twins and did so with lots of organic veggies and healthy Latin food. 

Despite being 80 percent gluten-free, the actress is a fan of sandwiches and doesn't shy away from making a stacked panini. "Sometimes I'll make panini, and I'll buy a whole bunch of awesome cold cuts," said Saldana. "My husband just loves cured meats. So I'll get bresaola and another thick salami from a local farm, or really good organic turkey breast. And cheeses... I get the panini makers out and everyone makes their own sandwiches."

Funny enough, it wasn't just the physical demands that altered what she could eat, but the makeup department as well. "Having green makeup on and wanting to have soup is really hard," she said in an interview with Bon Appetit. "If that soup lands on your chin, and all that green makeup smears off, it takes forever to fix it."

Saldana doesn't like the word diet, but makes an effort to exercise and eat healthy, following up her workouts with meals like honey ginger chicken, zucchini, and quinoa.

The big questions with each X-Men film entry are how jacked is Jackman going to be and what did he eat to get so jacked?

The Aussie actor is a subscriber of the 8-hour diet (Sorry, you won't look like Wolverine in eight hours). The diet involves limiting food consumption to an eight-hour window, followed by a 16-hour fasting period.

"I feel so much better on it..." Jackman told Men's Journal. "And the great thing about the diet is I sleep so much better."

Jackman might have limited his noshing to just an eight-hour window, but he was putting down 4,000 to 6,000 calories a day eating everything from green smoothies to steamed vegetables and brown rice — though he's strict about not eating carbs after 3 p.m. "If you just made that one change and did nothing else, you'd lose 11 lbs in the first month," Jackman said.

He also aimed for "1.3 grams of protein per 1 pound of target bodyweight" or in Jackman's case, around 260 grams a day which amounts to around 11 chicken breasts.

All that disciplined eating doesn't mean that Jackman can't let loose once his Wolverine claws are put away though. The actor showed off his ravenous appetite on The Tonight Show in February 2017, indulging in a gigantic bowl of pasta with a little vino on the side.

One doesn't become a Jabari warrior and defender of Wakanda by sitting around munching on Doritos and M&Ms all day. For Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, prepping for the starring role meant taking a on a few different diets.

"At first, I was eating a lot of meat, and then I felt like it was too much for the amount of energy we needed to extend every day," Boseman told Variety. The actor then shifted gears and like a lot of superhero actors, began adopting a more plant-based diet. "So my diet became more vegetarian as we went along. It's a lot of eating because there's a lot of physical activity."

There's nothing easy about transforming from a mere mortal into a superhero either. Boseman admitted to Train magazine that it takes more than a nutritionist prepping your meals. "It is tough; you have to be very disciplined day-in-day-out..." he said. "With Black Panther it's obviously based around protein, complex carbs, healthy fats, fruit and veg, natural foods. Lots of greens."

Considering that Black Panther made $700 million just in the United States, we'd say that day-in-day-out discipline was well worth it.

While Hugh Jackman might workout for Wolverine by deadlifting 400 pounds, Ryan Reynolds' training process for Deadpool was a bit more chill. "Hugh Jackman has a dedication to his craft that I'm afraid I don't share," Reynolds told Men's Health. "If I'm up at 2 in the morning, it's because something has gone terribly wrong."

Fair enough.

That doesn't mean that Reynolds didn't adjust his routine to get in shape. The actor admitted that he had to significantly change how he ate from his Van Wilder days. "I was pretty unhealthy," he admitted. "I didn't care what I ate or what I drank." To get in shape the actor adopted a 3,200 calories-a-day diet of "clean whole foods" and began working out six days a week. "I was eating, like, live children as they passed in order to bulk up," joked Reynolds.

The best part of ending any superhero diet of course is getting the green light to partake in something as deliciously greasy as pizza. Reynolds told Men's Health (via ET Online) that for him, it was all about grabbing a NY slice. "There's a Patsy's Pizza up in Harlem that's pretty much the best pizza...on the whole planet."

Alexandra Shipp had some big shoes to fill following in Halle Berry's footsteps as Storm in 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse. That of course meant lots of time at the gym and avoiding her "nemesis" — Mexican food.

The actress revealed in an interview with The Cut, that she's vegan and tries to regularly eat healthy. "We are what we eat," said Shipp. "I had to figure that out." This doesn't mean she's only eating soy beans, however, and she revealed that she will occasionally stray from her vegan diet when traveling.

"I want to treat myself to eggs Benedict all the time," confessed Shipp. "I'm always blown away by the eggs in Europe." The actress admitted that even if guilty pleasure foods like cheese and rich creams hurt her stomach, if she wants it she's "going to grab it and go for it."

If you're avoiding the deliciousness of Mexican food, you're allowed a few eggs. Nothing to feel guilty about, Alexandra.