When we watch superheroes in films lifting objects many times their body weight and flinging them here and there without sweating a single drop, we forget that there’s a very human actor behind the scene pretending to be that strong. As much as we wish, actors aren’t superheroes sadly.
However, while these actors may not be able to lift as much weight as shown in the movies, they still put in a lot of effort to look as strong as they do on screen.
Actress Brie Larson can vouch for this fact, having undergone intense training for around nine months to prepare for her role in the Captain Marvel film. This was the first film to have been released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that had a female superhero as the lead, and hence Larson worked as hard as she could to do justice to her role.
Training with a Professional
Whenever Hollywood needs to get an actor into the perfect shape for a film project, there are only a few names in the fitness industry who are summoned to do the job. And Jason Walsh is perhaps one of the most frequently engaged fitness trainers for this purpose.
Walsh, who has founded two fitness regimens in the Los Angeles area by the name of Rise Movement as well as Rise Nation, is certified by the NSCA and also came with a nice track record, having trained actors like Bradley Cooper (for his role in American Sniper), and Emily Blunt (for her role in Edge of Tomorrow), to name a couple.
Building Strength
According to Walsh, Larson’s training plan was devised keeping in mind the desired outcome: to make the actress strong and build up her resilience as much as possible.
The idea was that Larson needed to feel confident when performing stunts in the film and also needed to perform them as effectively and safely as possible. That was only possible if she had the required strength.
Apparently, Walsh liked the training program he had created for Larson so much, he launched an app which included a workout spanning two-weeks inspired by the one he made for the actress.
The goal was to allow people to feel as confident as possible by building up strength and, in the long term, improve their self-esteem.
Getting Into Character
For Larson, the strength-building workouts were also a great way to get the feel of the character even before reading the script, at least according to Walsh.
Obviously, if she felt like a superhero, then acting as a superhero in front of the camera came very naturally to her.
But there is also a very practical advantage of training properly before filming action sequences in movies.
According to Walsh, the chances of getting injured while performing stunts is reduced as the actor feels more in control of their own physical self, and this greater control allows them to steer their body away from physical harm, if and when needed.
Larson’s training started slow, but eventually graduated to become very intense. And the end result, as we all saw, was phenomenal.