These days you watch TV and every other guy is ripped to shreds, totally fit and there is some ridiculous contrived moment set up for him to take off shirt and show off his six pack abs…. Now, I’m an actor and have been one for most my life, I totally understand that in our profession you have to keep in shape and be camera ready, but over the last few years, its been getting ridiculous! I was up for a film and the casting folks called up my manager and asked how many weeks am I away from a six pack! So crazy, not the quality of my acting, no, how fast can he get a six pack!
I know, I know, women have been subject to this for years, especially in my industry, and yes, it’s been horrible for them. But we’re men and we weren’t subject to that type of behavior. Hahaha… I mean, seriously… James Dean never had a six pack, John Wayne, Steve McQueen, non of those guys had abdominal muscles bulging from their stomachs, they were just great actors, some of the greatest & coolest actors of their time.. Hell, Elvis never had abs and it doesn’t get cooler then Elvis! Now, I have friends that get ripped out before a gig and you hear all these other stories about all the actors getting in shape to play a role or getting ready for the scene when they have to take their shirts off and it spans from severe diets and intense work outs to straight steroid use! Can you believe it?!?! I mean, steroids? 6 pack abs? How does that enhance the portraying of a alcoholic, single father, or whatever? It’s so unreal, that look… Even for the guys doing it, they push themselves to look like that for that role, sometime for just that day of filming,, they can’t even keep it up…
Its an almost unattainable goal, at least in some healthy way… Whether taking drugs like steroids or depriving the body of food and submitting yourself to some kind of mental torture, passing the line of staying in shape and being fit to place of temporary insanity! All to get that look… Sometimes I see guys at the gym staring at themselves in the mirror, almost infatuated with their own image and I wonder what happen to us… us men, I mean, I find myself acting like that too. Six pack abs, does it make you any better of an actor? Does it make you any better of person? It might even make you a worse person at times… Maybe I’m just bitchin cause I don’t want to go to the gym today… In any case, let’s hit the gym.
