There has been no shortage of chatter over the rock-hard body Hugh Jackman sported in Deadpool & Wolverine, which was also a recurring meta joke throughout the two-plus-hour comic book blockbuster. But those incredibly defined six pack abs took a village, so to speak, as Jackman explained this week.
The 55-year-old took to social media on Wednesday to express his gratitude to his team for all the hard work that was put into getting him into "Wolverine" shape at his age, along with a shirtless selfie as proof of the end result.
"I've had a lot of people talk to me or ask me questions about how I got not shape, and what I did, what I ate, how I trained, how hard is it at your age and all of these things," Jackman started off by saying in an audio clip. "And honestly, I just wanted to take a second to say, yeah I had to turn up—yep, I had to do those deadlifts and I had to eat those meals, but I had an incredible team that helped me."
"When I say team, I'm gonna mention like eight people," the X-Men star continued. "Because there's not a hope in hell I would have gotten there without them." To begin with, he thanked his trainer of five years, Beth Lewis, who has been training him for a variety of projects.
"I am in better shape—and when I say shape, what I mean is physical health—my knees, my shoulders that have been bothering me for years, gone," he said. "She's helped me get through this and get the results I need while feeling fantastic. She never makes me overwork, she made me realize I have been overworking in the past, she always was present, thoughtful, kind, and then when it was time to push me, she could push me."
Jackman also thanked the team of cooks and nutritionists who were responsible for his meals during the training period. "For about a year, I didn't have to think about what I was cooking, what I was shopping for," he explained, noting that he basically just had someone counting out his grams of protein and fat. "I had someone preparing me meals, which made it so much easier."
But it wasn't all just diet and exercise that made Jackman look so incredible onscreen. There was also some Hollywood magic, so to speak. He also thanked his makeup artist Whitney, who was tasked with applying oil to his body to make his skin glisten. "You would hear [director] Shawn Levy yell out, ‘Fresh lube on Hugh!’ and everyone would sort of cringe a little bit—not cringe, laugh," he quipped.
Jackman also shared that everyone worked around his schedule on the day they filmed the climactic final action scene, including Levy and his costar and writer Ryan Reynolds, to ensure that he would look his best.
"On the day, because I was grumpy, I was not having water the night before, I was eating tilapia and beans for days and how to make that day work best for me, everyone on set was just making it easy," he added.
For now, it seems as though Jackman is taking a break from doing superhero movies for the immediate future, and it's clear that he's earned it.
