Hugh Jackman Transformation

For Hugh Jackman, the intense preparation—whether it’s dropping weight for Les Miserables or training with Sugar Ray Leonard for Real Steel—is part of the performance, even when the cameras aren’t rolling. For example, he always wants to give himself a solid three months to prepare for any role that might have him in the raw, which is often a possibility with anything Wolverine-related.

“There’s a naked shot in this one,” he says. “Not front naked—it’s PG-13—but full-body. So I made it very clear that I wanted to know the date I’d be shooting that stuff.” When he heard that the day of shooting might be pushed back by a few weeks, Jackman wasn’t having it. “I said, ‘Absolutely not! I don’t care, you can push anything back you want, but I’m naked on that day!’ “

Jackman also has an industry reputation as a generous gentleman. He listens. He engages. He respects.

Give credit to his father, who emphasized good etiquette: “Everything was very proper and English that way. So a lot of that chivalry was stuff I was taught at home. But then he’d actually talk to me about stuff like respect. Really, it’s about having respect for people.”

Feeling comfortable is a warning sign for Hugh Jackman. Taking a break, stepping out of the spotlight, or recharging are just never options. To push himself, he defines goals as single-minded pursuits that are limiting, while challenges can expand. Example: Can a man be in better shape for his signature role in 2013 than he was 10 years earlier? Watch The Wolverine and you see the answer.

“It wasn’t until I came to a truce inside myself about the fact that my job rarely will be comfortable that I started to enjoy it more,” he says. “Like Wolverine. You want to get somewhere you’re not physically? It’s going to be uncomfortable. The end result is good, but it’s uncomfortable to change.”

The Wolverine Diet

The food varied through the different stages. However, he followed one nutrition principle throughout the entire training: carb cycling. He had carbs on weight training days, and went low-carb on rest days.

The most important part of dieting comes in calculating the amount of calories and macronutrients for the specific goal. He ate very clean throughout the entire film, but more importantly, he consumed the right amount of calories for his goal.

In terms of meals, he did nothing new or exciting. Here’s an example for a training day:

Meal 1: Eggs and Oatmeal.

Meal 2: Steak, Sweet Potato and Brocolli.

Meal 3: Chicken, Brown Rise and Spinach.

Meal 4: Fish, Avocado and Brocolli.