Actors Who Refused To Get Ripped For Roles

It's fairly common in the entertainment industry for actors to go above and beyond in preparation for their roles. Whether it's through learning how to sing, perfecting a historical figure's accent, or in some extreme cases, refusing medical treatment that isn't period-accurate (we're looking at you, Daniel Day-Lewis), there aren't many things actors won't do to deliver a great performance. However, in some isolated incidents, actors and actresses have refused to do one simple but transformative method of preparation: exercise.

There are many stories of actors who put themselves through the turmoil of an extreme workout routine to take on a physically demanding role. Brie Larson famously chronicled her fitness regime in preparation for "Captain Marvel" on her social media pages, while more recently, Zac Efron completely disappeared into the role of wrestler Kevin von Erich for A24's "The Iron Claw." 

But not every actor wants to physically challenge themselves for a nigh-impossible superhero physique. Sometimes, they forgo exercise for artistic purposes, believing their characters shouldn't be ultra-thin or beefy. Other times, actors are just not willing to look past the dubious methods that Hollywood has for encouraging actors to lose weight and get shredded. Sometimes, too, actors are simply proud of the way they look without any training. These 12 actors all stood their ground and made the choice not to get ripped for roles, and for some, it may have cost them the part altogether. 

It's hard to imagine there was ever a time in Hollywood when Ryan Gosling wasn't the type of movie star everyone wanted to work with. But in the late 2000s, things got a bit rough for the future Ken. Gosling was set to star in Peter Jackson's 2009 fantasy drama "The Lovely Bones," playing the father of Saoirse Ronan's character, a teenage girl murdered by her neighbor who helps her family solve it from the afterlife. However, Gosling ended up getting fired from the film due to disagreements he had with Jackson. Those disagreements were all about the character's physical appearance.

Gosling later explained to The Hollywood Reporter that he and Jackson "had a different idea of how the character should look ... I really believed he should be 210 pounds." Behind Jackson's back, Gosling spent the film's pre-production process gaining 60 pounds, which he mostly achieved through drinking melted Haagen-Dazs ice cream. When Gosling showed up for the first day of filming, Jackson fired him for the unapproved weight gain. "Then I was fat and unemployed," Gosling joked.

The role ended up going to Mark Wahlberg, but Gosling's efforts to gain weight rather than get shredded didn't go to waste. When Austin Butler was preparing for his critically acclaimed performance as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's 2022 biopic, he took his cues from Gosling and also began drinking Haagen-Dazs to play an older, heavier King of Rock 'n' Roll. 

Sam Worthington was one of the biggest action stars of the early 2010s, hot off notable performances in James Cameron's "Avatar," "Terminator Salvation," and the 2010 Greek epic "Clash of the Titans." The latter, directed by Louis Leterrier, was a remake of a 1981 film chronicling the Greek myth of Perseus, featuring Worthington playing the demigod challenged with defeating a Kraken. Worthington reprised his role two years later for a sequel, "Wrath of the Titans," this time directed by Jonathan Liebesman.

For "Wrath of the Titans," Worthington opted to take a different approach to his character. Since Perseus has had a son by the time "Wrath of the Titans" begins, Worthington felt it would be appropriate if, for this adventure, the character sported a dad bod. He told Variety, "I looked at it as Perseus was half a god and half a dad, and he had decided that he didn't want the god part anymore."

As Worthington admits, it was probably careless of him to just show up the first day of shooting without his chiseled physique, as it led to tense arguments among him, Liebesman, and the studio executives who had funneled money into the project. However, unlike Gosling's experience on "The Lovely Bones," at least Worthington didn't get recast.

Carrie Fisher is widely regarded as one of the most iconic actors of all time, thanks to her performance as Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" trilogy from 1977 to 1983. Since she originated the role in a galaxy far, far away, Fisher had a successful career in film up until her sudden passing in 2016, which included roles in "The Blues Brothers" and "When Harry Met Sally...." Throughout those years, Fisher was outspoken about the darker sides of Hollywood, including her own battles with addiction and mental health.

Before she died, Fisher also got to reprise her role as Princess Leia in Disney's "Star Wars" sequel trilogy, starting with 2015's "The Force Awakens." However, Fisher's welcome back to the franchise wasn't as warm as she might've hoped. In the 2016 documentary "Bright Lights," which focuses mainly on Fisher's relationship with her mother, Debbie Reynolds, a 59-year-old Fisher is shown being persuaded into exercising by a personal trainer hired by Disney to prepare her for her appearance in "The Force Awakens."

Fisher, not one to hide her true feelings, made it very known how much she detested being demanded to lose weight for the role, telling The Guardian, "They don't want to hire all of me — only about three-quarters! Nothing changes ... I'm in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance." Thankfully, Fisher didn't let Disney boss her around for too long, and she ended up refilling her pantries with junk food anyway. 

By the 2010s, Kirsten Dunst was already one of the most iconic actresses of her generation, thanks to her work as a child actress in "Interview with the Vampire," as well as her iconic role as Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy. The 2000s also saw the beginning of Dunst's long creative collaboration with director Sofia Coppola, starring in her dramas "The Virgin Suicides" and "Marie Antoinette." Dunst and Coppola reunited for the 2017 period thriller "The Beguiled," based on a 1966 novel by Thomas P. Cullinan, in which she plays the sole teacher at a girls' school in Civil War-era Virginia.

The actress and director, by this point, had an incredibly close relationship, but it was on "The Beguiled" where Dunst had to put her foot down in a rare moment, telling Variety she fought back when Coppola suggested that she lose weight for the role, "It's so much harder when you're 35 and hate working out ... I'm eating fried chicken and McDonald's before work. So I'm like, 'We have no options! I'm sorry I can't lose weight for this role.'"

When Dunst does have to exercise, she also prefers alternative methods than getting shredded through lifting weights, admitting that she prefers fun activities like ballet dancing over diets and restrictive workouts.

David Harbour has never been opposed to undergoing massive physical transformations for roles. He got shredded to play Hellboy, and he also gained and lost weight numerous times for seasons of the Netflix series "Stranger Things." However, when it came to Harbour's introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he took a different approach than others who have had the same opportunity.

In 2021's "Black Widow," Harbour portrayed Alexei Shostakov, aka Red Guardian, a super-soldier created by the Soviet Union as their answer to Captain America. When we meet him in the present-day, Alexei has spent years in Russian prison — but as is often joked about in the film, Alexei's time in prison has not seen him starve, but actually pack on a few pounds. That was Harbour's idea. He told The New York Times the decision came after he had already put on weight and grown his hair out for "Stranger Things," saying, "I was like, 'Let's use the weight.' So I started eating even more. I got up to 280 pounds, and I loved it."

What's impressive is that, for a flashback sequence at the beginning of "Black Widow," Harbour had to slim back down and lose 60 pounds at the very end of production. However, the actor is probably thankful that he gets to reprise his role as Red Guardian in the MCU's "Thunderbolts," as he'll probably get to pack the pounds back on. 

The role of the Dark Knight is no simple feat for any actor, so it makes sense that Robert Pattinson was a little intimidated by the preparation process for Matt Reeves' 2022 film "The Batman." However, Pattinson came into the project with certain expectations already set about how he wanted to play the role and what he wanted to avoid. He described to GQ his aversion to getting super-ripped for any role, saying, "I think if you're working out all the time, you're part of the problem." 

The production process for "The Batman" was even further complicated when everything got shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Warner Bros. provided the actor with meals in quarantine, he ignored his personal trainer's recommendations to continue his routine indoors with a Bosu ball and singular weights. Even his "The Batman" co-star, Zoë Kravitz, kept up her five-days-a-week training regime during lockdown.

What actually interested Pattinson, in terms of his Batman training, was learning martial arts, which he practiced with Brazilian mixed martial arts instructor Rigan Machado for three months prior to shooting. Although the actor has ended up relenting to workout culture after returning to set for "The Batman," he remains adamant that a lot of fad diets and workout trends are nonsense. He told ES Magazine, "If you're just watching your calorie intake, it's extraordinarily addictive — and you don't quite realise how insidious it is until it's too late." The moral is that unhealthy habits aren't worth the superhero look.