Why The Bear Star Will Poulter’s Fitness Transformation is Marvelous

Originally appeared on E! Online

Will Poulter whisks a lot faster now.

After all, before The Bear star was making decadent desserts in the FX series—for which he earned an Outstanding Guest Actor in A Comedy Series nomination at the 2024 Emmys Sept. 15—he was stepping into the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Guardians of The Galaxy: Vol 3. That, of course, required a major fitness journey to transform into his super-human character.

And it came from the help of his personal trainer because to achieve the look of the shining Adam Warlock, he had to emulate perfection—or as close as he could.

“Will wanted to look as close to a Greek God as possible,” Dr. Benjamin Carraway told GQ in December. “I had medical doctors and psychiatrists helping me—I brought in a team of consultants. As a perfectionist, the consequences of him injuring himself or burning out with the training would have caused him a lot of psychological issues.”

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But Will—who earned one of The Bear’s 23 nominations at the 2024 Emmys— was also aware that the process of his fitness transformation was an immense privilege.

“I had so much of the hard work done for me,” he explained to Variety in July 2022. “It was actually my job just to kind of train and eat, so I’ve got no complaints.”

And the 31-year-old was ready for the challenge because, as he told The Independent earlier that year, Warlock was “genetically engineered by scientists to be the perfect being.”

“The most important thing is that your mental and physical health has to be number one,” he explained. “The aesthetic goals have to be secondary. Otherwise, you end up promoting something that is unhealthy and unrealistic if you don’t have the financial backing of a studio paying for your meals and training.”

As for what he did to develop his buff physique?

“It’s been a lot of gym work and a very, very specific diet,” he revealed. “Quantities of food you wouldn’t necessarily want to ingest. And other times not enough food. I’ve gone through a series of different diets over the last few months.”

“I’ve gone through periods of looking at food and feeling like I can’t face it,” the We’re the Millers actor continued. “Then you blink and the next minute you’re ready to eat furniture because you’re so hungry.”

And while Will knows he looked good after bulking up for the 2023 film, and has even kept the muscular physique for his role as pasty chef Luca in The Bear, it’s incredibly unrealistic in day to day life. He noted, “I wouldn’t recommend anyone do what I did to get ready for that job.”

Watch the 2024 Emmys ceremony Sunday, Sept. 15, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC.