Creed III’s Jonathan Majors Worked Out Hard To Play A Bodybuilder And Ate An Incredible Number Of Calories In The Process

Taylor Swift · January 28, 2023

This is a lot to do for a role!

Although a lot of attention directed towards Jonathan Majors right now concerns his debut as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it’s not the only way the actor is shining on the cinematic front in the early days of 2023. Along with Creed III opening at the beginning of March, last weekend saw his upcoming movie Magazine Dreams premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Magazine Dreams sees Majors playing a toxic, obsessed bodybuilder, and along with working out hard to reach the right physique for the role, he also had to eat an incredible number of calories.

Jonathan Majors discussed his fitness and dietary regimen on Magazine Dreams while speaking with Variety at Sundance. Starting off, Majors talked about the hours of exercise that went into his physical transformation, as well as touched on all the food he ate:

" The normal bodybuilder works out two times a day. I’m playing Killian Maddox… Playing him you don’t fuck around. What ended up happening is I would train two hours, two times a day for the movie and a third time after wrap. Meanwhile, you eat six times a day. Lots of chicken. Lots of elk. That’s just for me. I like it. "

So on top of having to spend most of his days on Magazine Dreams acting in front of the camera, Jonathan Majors also had to carve out a significant chunk of time just to exercise and eat all that food. By the way, Majors talking about all the chicken he ate calls to mind Hugh Jackman sharing he did the same thing when he needed to get into Wolverine shape. Continuing on the eating front, Majors specifically had to ingest over 6,000 calories of food each day for more than one-fourth of a year in order to maintain the proper shape. As he put it:

" I’m 6 feet tall. I’m 202 pounds. In order to sustain that and to grow that you have to eat as much protein that you weigh. I ate 6,100 calories a day for about four months. That included the pre-work and the post-work of ‘Creed III.' "

The upside of such a strict diet and hardcore exercising is the ripped physique that was on display in the first Magazine Dreams look that came out last December. The downside is that working out for this movie, as well as Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, has resulted in Majors missing french fries, and he also dealt with “a lot of isolation” during 18 months of training. With those three movies out of the way, Majors isn’t keeping up the same fitness pace that had been required of him, but he does still work out “once a day” and enjoys activities like hiking and running.

While it’s hard to say when the public will get to see Magazine Dreams, the buzz out of Sundance for the movie has been largely positive, with it giving Jonathan Majors his Travis Bickle moment. In the meantime, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens on February 17, followed by Creed III on March 3, as part of the lineup of 2023 new movie releases.