Adrien Brody Beefs Up

Adrien Brody has had a variety of roles since he truly stepped onto the Hollywood scene nearly a decade ago. He’s been a Jewish-Polish musician in Roman Polanski’s Holocaust drama The Pianist, the romantic lead in the remake of King Kong, and a scientist in the thrillerSplice. Now he’s replaced Arnold Schwarzenegger in a reboot of 1987’s box office smash Predator.

The Predators star spoke to The Los Angeles Times about his transformation into an action star.

“It’s a role that a studio wouldn’t necessarily have me on a list for.” Brody said. “It was a very challenging thing for me to embark on. I think that fans have expectations if you’re going to reboot a series like that — so there’s a certain amount of risk that inspires me.”

Indeed, Brody worked hard to put on the necessary muscle to hold up the Predatorsrole. He ate six meals a day, trained with heavy weights and abstained from indulging in alcohol and sugar. In return, the actor rapidly gained 25 pounds of sheer muscle mass.

“When I was training, I wasn’t really showing off the progress, and at the end, I think I scared them because I had grown a lot and they were all pretty shocked at how I looked,” the actor said.

Brody also spoke about fighting the cookie-cutter casting approach in Hollywood. “When you make movies for a wide audience, which studios try to do, they follow a formula that seems safe,” Brody said.

“So I’ve made a conscious decision my entire career to try and find things that are different than something I have done recently. To always push myself and keep it interesting. If it’s interesting for me, it should remain interesting to other people.”