The full interview with Dr. Mike Israetel about bodybuilding, buff actors, and steroids in Hollywood is also available as an episode of the Consequence UNCUT podcast. Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.
It happens a few times a year: a famous actor, perhaps in his forties or fifties, posts a photo looking buff. Some of the comments are admiring and more than a few are thirsty, but invariably, suspicions are raised. Did he accomplish this transformation naturally? Or did he have — you know — help?
“Trenything is possible,” is a common comment-section refrain; a reference to trenbolone, a powerful anabolic steroid. The implication is clear: With enough chemicals, anyone can get ripped. But is that true — is “trenything” possible? What kind of growth do steroids allow, and how popular are they among the A-list actors of today?
A handful of superstars have publicly admitted to using the kinds of compounds you can’t buy at a mall — some more willingly than others. In 2007, Sylvester Stallone pleaded guilty to importing growth hormone into Australia after being caught at customs.
Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger has openly chatted about his enhanced training techniques, especially during his bodybuilding peak (“100 milligrams a week,” plus “three Dianabol a day, so that was 15 milligrams”). For his part, Mickey Rourke gave a winking admission to Men’s Journal when asked about steroids for his Oscar-nominated role in The Wrestler: “When I’m a wrestler, I behave like a wrestler,” he said.
Stallone and Schwarzenegger were part of the first wave of bodybuilders to reshape Hollywood. Before the 1970s, even the most swaggering cinema stud wasn’t physically intimidating.
“Male stars who appeared in action-oriented genres (Westerns, adventures, crime dramas) during the Golden Age of Hollywood were charismatic but did not work out or have uber-masculine bodies,” Dr. Susan Doll, film studies professor at Ringling College of Art & Design, tells Consequence. “Think [Humphrey] Bogart or [James] Cagney or John Wayne, whose screen presence was based on their star images and charisma. There are a couple of exceptions — Victor Mature was a physical fitness enthusiast, as was Kirk Douglas.”
