SUPERMAN’S ICONIC, SKIN-TIGHT suit demands a physique as heroic as the role itself. So when David Corenswet landed the part, he went all in — packing on a massive 18kg of muscle. But in his quest to embody the Man of Steel, Corenswet may have pushed things a little too far.
In preparation to play Superman for the 2025 film based on the eponymous character, Corenswet underwent an intense regime which saw him train five to six times a week and eat 4,500 calories a day for five months prior to filming started. In that time he added 18kg of bodyweight, helping him fulfil the jacked physique Clark Kent naturally has.
Such a drastic weight gain ultimately proved a problem for Corenswet when it came to pulling on the blue tights on the first day of filming, however. His measurements for the suit were initially taken when he had a lot less muscle mass, during the screen-test months before. As a result, he had to contend with a particularly compressed feeling on set.
‘I hadn’t thought about this, but you hear actors who play superheroes talking about squeezing into suits. I got kind of claustrophobic in the suit the first time, just being constricted in all those places at the same time,’ Corenswet told People. ‘The fact that it takes a few minutes to get out of it – there’s no quick release – was an intense experience, and not this amazing, glorious, becoming-the-character moment.
‘The first time [I put the suit on] it was in pieces, the S wasn’t even on yet, it was really just about the blue tights. It was quite snug because they had made it to my proportions when I screen-tested, where I weighed about 195lbs (88kg), and when I walked in for my first costume fitting I weighed about 235-240lbs (106-109kg).’
Fortunately, Corenswet managed to get used to the incredibly locked-in feeling of playing a superhero. ‘The suit and I grew together, to the point where, when it did all come together in the last fitting before I stepped out on set for the first time, it felt familiar and it didn’t feel like a new thing for me, it felt like my suit, which was amazing.’
This article originally appeared on Men’s Health UK.
Related:
David Corenswet’s complete ‘Superman’ workout routine and diet plan
https://menshealth.com.au/how-tom-hardy-eats-and-trains-to-stay-in-top-shape-at-47/
