The Top 10 Celebrity Body Transformations That Are Probably Steroids

I hate to break it to you… There’s very little chance these actors built their physiques naturally.

When you were a child, did you get disappointed finding out that Santa Claus isn’t real?

It almost feels the same for some people when they find out their favourite athlete or movie star’s physique is down to using steroids…

I’m not comparing Lance Armstrong to Father Christmas, but we all really want to believe our heroes are superhuman.

However, sometimes reality shatters the illusion.

In this article, I discuss some of the most impressive Hollywood physiques, many of which are very likely to be steroids-enhanced.

The basis for this claim is the unrealistic timeframes of these body transformations, often claimed as in as little as 8–12 weeks. You just can’t build ridiculous amounts of muscle whilst losing fat in such a small amount of time without using steroids.

With amazing genetics, most of these transformations are possible over realistic timeframes such as years rather than months.

But, that’s usually not the case…

Are Hollywood Actors Really Using Steroids?

Many of Hollywood’s leading men have used performing-enhancing drugs to attain their muscular onscreen physiques.

But is there any evidence? Yes, some actors have admitted to their use, and others implicated in the busts of steroid ring busts.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has spoken about his PED use, and Mickey Rourke admitted using steroids to get into shape for The Wrestler at 56 years of age.

“I have no regrets about it…(steroid use) Because at that time, it was something new that came on the market, and we went to the doctor and did it under doctors’ supervision. We were experimenting with it. It was a new thing.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger

Charlie Sheen talked about his steroid for 1989’s Major League. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, he would never use them again as “they made him a bit more irritable than normal.”

Police arrested Sylvester Stallone in 2007 at an Australian airport for carrying Human Growth Hormone. He later admitted to his use of steroids.

“As you get older, the pituitary gland slows and you feel older, your bones narrow. This stuff gives your body a boost and you feel and look good.” — Sylvester Stallone

Steroids busts

Though it’s legal to prescribe some steroids to treat medical conditions in the US, authorities have busted many doctors, clinics and pharmacies illegally prescribing drugs to help people build muscle — this led to implication for many actors.

• In 1993, a Los Angeles-based doctor was arrested and admitted to selling steroids to many athletes and celebrities, including David Hasselhoff.
• In 2008, the 2008 Albany steroids ring investigation named actors/entertainers 50 Cent, Tyler Perry, and Timbaland as clients.
• In 2018, jailed steroids distributer Rodriguez alleged famous actors would have drugs delivered under different names and separate addresses to prevent direct identification, naming Hollywood stars Mark Wahlberg and Josh Duhamel as clients.

Veteran Hollywood trainer Happy Hill estimates that up to 20% of Hollywood’s leading men use PEDs to transform their bodies.

The Top 10 Hollywood Body Transformations

Over the past ten to fifteen years, several of Hollywood’s leading men have had radical body transformations to prepare for movie roles — often to play the roles of superheroes.

There are similarities with many of these — a Hollywood actor becomes ripped for a movie, then appears on a talk show or in a Men’s Health article, claiming it’s due to eating chicken, broccoli, and rice every 2 hours and working out for several hours a day. All in 12 weeks!

It’s like they’re reading from a script.

Apparently, the more insane a routine sounds, the faster you build muscle. Which couldn’t be further from the truth… But that conversation is for another day — this is the top 10 Hollywood body transformations that are probably steroids enhanced.

10. Mark Wahlberg

Mark Wahlberg has consistently had one of the more muscular physiques in Hollywood for many years.

Wahlberg has denied any steroid use.

However, the 2018 bust of steroids distributor Richard Rodriguez implicated Wahlberg. As you can see in the video below, it gets very awkward when Wahlberg is asked about it by a TMZ reporter.

However, Wahlberg packed on the extra muscle for his role in 2013’s Pain and Gain alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Marky Mark claimed he gained 40 pounds of muscle in 7 weeks, eating 12 meals a day.

Men’s Health — “I heard you were eating like ten meals a day.”

Mark Wahlberg — “More like twelve… Well, sometimes you have to get up in the middle of the night for a meal.”

There’s no way a person in their early 40s puts on that amount of muscle in that amount of time, natural or not. But it sounds impressive.

9. The Rock

One of the most obvious steroid users in Hollywood is former professional wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He admitted to taking steroids in college, but he reckons only once, and it didn’t work…

Many professional wrestlers have been busted or admitted to steroid use, including perhaps the most famous wrestler of them all, Hulk Hogan.

Dwayne Johnson was clearly using steroids back in his WWE (WWF) days.

Since becoming a Hollywood star, Johnson’s physique has gone up and down. He lost size for more family-oriented movies early on, likely as he came off the steroids.

But over the past decade, The Rock got massive. In 2013, he gained 30–50 pounds (15–25 kg) of muscle for his role as a bodybuilder in Pain & Gain.

Since then, he has packed on even more muscle and probably had the least amount of body fat we have seen, building his most impressive physique yet for 2022’s upcoming superhero movie Black Adam.

He’s got a ridiculous amount of size for a 50-year-old guy.

8. Jason Momoa

First finding fame on Baywatch: Hawaii from 1999 until 2001, Jason Momoa has bulked up with muscle for different roles over the years, including Conan the Barbarian (2011) and Aquaman.

He’s a big guy at 6 foot 4, meaning he has to put on considerable muscle to fill out his frame.

In all honesty, Momoa’s early Baywatch physique suggests he has good genetics for building muscle given it was 15 years later when he played Aquaman. I think he could achieve it naturally, given his genetics.

However, in an interview, he gives the standard “eat chicken breast every two hours” and work out for several hours a day…

Whenever a celebrity says that you have to be suspicious.

7. Tom Hardy

Star of the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Tom Hardy gained considerable muscle to play the role of Bane. He reportedly put on 30 pounds of muscle.

“That’s the magic of lighting and three or four months of lifting and training and eating lots of pizza. It wasn’t great for my heart. The point was to look as big as possible…”

According to Men’s Health, Hardy dropped 15% body fat and gained 44 pounds (20kg) for his role in the Warrior the year prior... and then gained another 13 kg on top of that… ridiculous lies!

That’s not possible even for somebody on steroids!

Even so, he put on some muscle.

“We couldn’t keep eating pulled pork, sadly, because there came a point where pulled pork had to stop, and we were only allowed chicken and broccoli.” — Tom Hardy

6. Chris Pratt

TV sitcom star Chris Pratt reportedly lost 60 pounds of fat in 6 months while gaining muscle.

The chubby Parks and Recreation actor had to transform into Peter Quill — Star-Lord: The half-human, half-alien leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

There are 26 weeks in 6 months, which means that to lose 60 pounds in 6 months, Pratt had to lose on average 2.3 pounds a week, meaning he had to be in a massive calorie deficit, far more than what is healthy.

Yet, he reportedly increased his calories to 4000 calories a day. Yet, according to a calorie calculator, for Pratt’s pre-transformation height and weight (6’2, 290 pounds), he would be on approximately 2400 calories a day to drop 2 pounds a week.

Classic Hollywood transformation bullshit.

5. Zac Efron

Rising to fame as a teenage heartthrob in High School Musical, Zac was a pretty skinny guy until he appeared in 2014’s Neighbors. Then, he drastically transformed his physique for 2017’s Baywatch, where he starred alongside Dwayne Johnson (there’s that name again).

You always have to be suspicious if someone appears in a film with The Rock and puts on a lot of muscle in a short period…

Efron reportedly added 10 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks and reached 5% body fat, which is entirely achievable… if you’re on steroids. It doesn’t sound as outlandish as some other celebrity claims, such as gaining 30–40 pounds of muscle.

But considering the massive amount of body fat he also lost, it gets more suspect.

“I was eating so much chicken breast. The hardest thing about it was actually chewing it all. So I would just put it into a blender and blend it all up, and drink the chicken .” — Zac Efron

4. Michael B. Jordan

Michael Jordan’s (not the basketball player) first role of note on the TV drama series Friday Night Lights as a 19-year-old. Although athletic, Michael B. Jordan didn’t have nearly the same muscle on his frame as today.

The amount of muscle he has gained in relatively short periods before movie roles makes his transformation questionable.

First adding a reported 24 pounds of muscle for Rocky spinoff Creed, Jordan reportedly added another 15 pounds for the upcoming Black Panther 2.

That’s over 40 pounds of muscle, which is more than most of us could wish to achieve in a lifetime of training, let alone prepare for two movie roles. In the below image, you can see how far Jordan’s physique has come.

“…Literally brown rice, chicken and broccoli… Working out two or three times a day, six days a week, for about a year-and-a-half. Your body will change. Water, eat every two and a half hours to keep your metabolism going. That’s it.” — Michael B. Jordan

3. Hugh Jackman

Australian actor Hugh Jackman famously changed his physique completely for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men films.

Jackman did not previously have much muscle on his frame, evident in 2000’s first X-Men movie. His physique is far from what we associate with his character from the later movies,

However, he made a very noticeable transformation for the second film in 2003, reportedly gaining 20 pounds of muscle and consuming 4,000–5,000 calories every day.

Jackman got into his best shape yet for 2013’s The Wolverine, well into his 40s and well past the age of peak testosterone production, which questions the likelihood of it being completely natural.

2. Chris Hemsworth

Standing 6 foot 3 tall (190 cm ), Chris has one of Hollywood’s most impressive physiques.

Chris Hemsworth’s acting career started as a teenage heartthrob on the Australian soap Home and Away. Initially quite slim with a surfer’s build, Hemsworth put on a reported 20 pounds of muscle for 2011’s Thor, the Norse God of Thunder.

The photo above was shared on Instagram in 2021, during the fourth installation of the popular Thor movie series, just before filming for his role as Hulk Hogan (yes, the wrestler who admitted his steroids abuse).

Hemsworth put on even more muscle, again questioning his natural status.

Below shows Hemsworth just two years apart: circa 2015, when he lost weight In The Heart of the Sea, and in 2017 when back into “Thor shape” for its third instalment.

“People see Chris and they think he was on steroids, but he didn’t touch a single substance,” Gaver says. “It was just red meat, heavy weights and some protein powder. He crushed every single workout. He simply decided to look like Thor.” —Trainer, Duffy Gaver

1. Kumail Nanjiani

The winner for the top transformation (probably steroids enhanced) is Kumail!

From skinny nerd to beefcake at 41 years old, who says things like “Chase the pain” and nearly throws up during workouts.

Kumail changed his physique for his role as a superhero in Eternals in 2019, reportedly gaining 25 pounds whilst reducing his body fat from 20% to 10%.

As you can see above, Nanjiani’s Wolverine impression isn’t far off Hugh Jackman’s.

If you want to know more about his transformation, read the article below. I do the math on the claimed numbers of his body transformation, equating to 42 pounds of muscle gained in ten months. That’s 19 kg!!

That’s pretty amazing. It’s amazingly ridiculous lies — but Nanjiani’s physique is pretty impressive.

“I’m playing the first South Asian superhero in a Marvel movie. I don’t want to be the schlubby brown guy — I want to look like someone who can hang with Thor and Captain America.” — Kumail Nanjiani

Parting Thoughts

This article has featured some of the most muscular physiques in Hollywood and discussed some unbelievable transformations.

Some of the lengths these actors went to with their diets and workout regimes that defy logic, steroids being the only logical answer for most of these Hollywood bodies.

Whether or not they gained 20+ pounds of muscle in 12 weeks, the physiques are impressive nonetheless.

Who am I to judge their physiques as unnatural? I’ve spent 15 years in the gym, and I follow a lot of fitness on social media, especially on YouTube. Several reputable fitness “influencers” share my views on celebrity body transformations, and some of them are openly on steroids themselves — check out More Plates More Dates and Greg Doucette.

There seems to be a culture of actors using steroids in Hollywood to get into the superhero shape required for roles. Would you take steroids if you earned millions of dollars to build this physique?

Those were my top ten body transformations in Hollywood, probably due to steroids.

Thanks for reading.

I hope that you enjoyed the article.

If you did, you might be interested in this article about how much muscle we really can build naturally. What is our natural genetic potential?

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