Like all major bodily transformations that actors go through, it’s the rapid changes that can do the most damage to their health. One might have heard about how certain actors chug ice cream to gain weight for certain roles or starve themselves for others. The same goes for actors who want to be muscular and bulky for an MCU role, but then play a character with an average physique in their next project.
Trainer Aaron Williamson — who worked with actors on multiple high-profile Hollywood blockbusters — was interviewed for “MCU,” and he noted that the physical whiplash is dangerous. Williamson said:
“Actors are trying to get on camera and blow everyone away […] Everyone’s just maxed out, doing everything possible to look superhuman … Someone might do a film where they have to look like a ‘normal’ person and then for their next project, they’ve got to look like this bulked-up, crazy-looking superhero guy. It’s impossible to go from one extreme to the other overnight without some type of help.”
Schroeder wasn’t judgmental about PED use for MCU actors, however. He knew that superhero roles were desirable as they attracted a lot of public attention and tended to pay well. They were also long-running gigs. If an actor wanted to, with a doctor’s supervision, use certain PEDs in the short-term in order to secure a gig that pays millions, then it was perfectly acceptable.
Schroeder also noted that some of the MCU actors were merely predisposed to good muscle tone (the lucky jerks). He noted that Chris Hemsworth was most of the way to Thor before signing on to play the role and that a small amount of working out bulks him up plenty. Hemsworth, he said, takes no PEDs.
