Marvel Star Will Poulter Was Concerned How Physical Transformation Would Affect His Mental Health
The bar has been set so high for superhero transformations that nowadays when an actor accepts a role in a Marvel or DC movie, they know that they're going to need to eat and train like an athlete, and with that comes pressure.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 star Will Poulter would have known that when he signed on to play antagonist and ‘physical specimen’ Adam Warlock.
Having previously revealed that he wouldn't have been able to achieve his transformation without a major movie studio paying for his meals and training, the British actor has now explained how Marvel and Disney were also careful to look after his mental health during the process too.
Speaking to The Cut, Poulter said: ‘I really appreciated that they [the studio] prioritised my mental health throughout the process, because I was concerned about how it might affect me when I was really hungry or tired or stressed.’
Poulter has said in the past that his preparation for the role of Adam Warlock included lots of gym work and eating ‘quantities of food you wouldn't necessarily want to ingest’. That work was necessary to portray a character that has been described as an ‘artificially created antagonist genetically engineered to be a perfect specimen’.
Still, Poulter admitted that ‘perfect’ wasn't what he was shooting for when he accepted the role, and humbly revealed that word doesn't really describe what he put up on screen.
‘I knew the second they cast me that they were going in a different direction,’ Poulter said, adding that his version of the character is essentially a baby and ‘far from physically perfect in just about every way'.
A self-described foodie, Poulter has said in the past that movie transformations are ‘unhealthy’ and ‘unrealistic’ without a movie studio's backing. No surprise then that when the film wrapped and he was free to eat what he wanted, he made up for the many months he'd denied himself.
‘It was a blur of calories,’ he said.
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