When Hugh Jackman was first cast as Wolverine, fans of the X-Men comics weren’t sure what to think. After all, Wolverine in the comics is much shorter and far more gruff-looking!
But Hugh proved everyone wrong and was one of the best examples of casting in a superhero movie. He has gone on to portray the character in many more movies and it’s hard to imagine any other actor in the role.
And one of the things that really helped Hugh to sell himself as Wolverine was the fact that he got into such incredible shape for the movie. Jackman was incredibly jacked in the first X-Men film but since then he has gone on to achieve almost bodybuilder-like definition and vascularity. In the scenes where he is topless, he looks like a genuinely superhero and he has to be commended for his commitment to the part and the training involved.
But how did a regular actor get into such shape? Is it possible to get that ripped using a standard diet? Or did he perhaps have a little help?
What We Know
The first thing to state going into this piece is that we don’t know for sure whether Jackman did or did not use steroids. He has never gone on record saying that he did and neither do we have any reason to suspect he is lying.
In fact then, the only reason we might suspect Hugh of using is the sheer fact that his transformation was so impressive that it’s hard to imagine him accomplishing it any other way. The real question we’re asking at this point then is: can you get into that kind of shape without getting help?
And before we answer that, we need to take a few more things into account.
One thing is Jackman’s age. On the one hand, this will be a challenging factor for an actor to contend with when trying to add that much muscle as they will have lower levels of testosterone.
At the same time though, being that little bit older means that Hugh’s skin will be considerably thinner. Thinner skin lends itself very well to that vascular look and this is something that has helped Stallone in the Expendable movies (though he does use HGH).
Another thing to recognize is that Hugh Jackman only needs to look that jacked for one single day. He trains leading up to those scenes where he will appear topless and on that day he’ll likely use additional techniques such as dehydrating himself to look his very best.
And then when he does step in front of the camera, he’ll be lit in such a way as to look his very best. None of this is to take away from how impressive his transformation is – it’s just to say that we shouldn’t take it at face value.
This all means that it is possible he would have been able to get into that shape for the purposes of the movie.
But remember too: Hugh also has access to the best food, supplements and trainers. If you want to get started on the path to that kind of shape, you might want to look into some of the top tier supplements yourself!
