Bill Skarsgård had a strict diet and exercise regimen that he “got fired up” for. crow, remake of the 1994 film starring Brandon Lee.
The 34-year-old actor recently spoke with Diversity about achieving the physical transformation required by his character.
Crowbased on James O’Barr’s graphic novel series first published in 1989, follows a man named Eric (Skarsgård) who is resurrected after a murder to get revenge on those who killed him and his fiancee (FKA Twigs).
“I have been training for some time. Me and my trainer were adding a little weight to what I was already, but I didn’t want to be too big either,” explained Skarsgård.
“It was awkward, because they wanted the Crow to be ripped out, but Eric the character shouldn’t be,” he said. “I didn’t think the character should be thin, but you can’t afford to spread it over six months, in a ‘Raging Bull’ way. So we did a lot of weight training and ate a lot of protein.”
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Bill Skarsgård in the movie The Crow.
Larry Horricks for Lionsgate
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Director Rupert Sanders told the Outlet that he was impressed by Skarsgård’s commitment to the role.
“I would take Bill out to dinner. I would always just order for him because I knew what he was eating,” he said. “It’s basically steak tartare and raw eggs. He was in the gym a lot. He ate very healthy and put us all to shame as we ate hamburgers and hot dogs and worked late into the night during the Czech summer.”
Sanders added that there is a lot of complex stunt work in the film, but due to Skarsgård’s fitness routine, he was able to do most of it himself.
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“As you can see, he is an incredibly physical person. His body in the film is incredible,” he said. “When he’s on, he’s a wrecking machine, but he also plays these incredible moments of softness and empathy, which really just give the action sequences a lot more emotional connection, which is why I think people really react to them. They’re not just gratuitous violence. You really feel like you’re in there with the character.”
Skarsgård said Diversity that even though his diet for the film was intense, it didn’t bother him too much. However, he was excited to celebrate the end of filming Crow with beer.
“I really liked what I was eating, so I didn’t feel like I had to cheat,” he said. “I didn’t eat sugar, but I’m not a very sweet guy. I guess my biggest con would be alcoholic beer. I celebrated after the shoot.”
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Source: HIS Education