Think it’s easy being the stunt double for one of the fittest and most muscular men to bring down the hammer on the big screen? Think again. Bobby Holland Hanton, the man who stepped up for the stunt double role, must go to extremes when it comes to his diet and training just to get anywhere near the size of Hemsworth.
“Chris is naturally a monster,” says Hanton. “All he has to do is look at weights and he grows.” While that may be a slight exaggeration, it’s clear to see that the Australian actor does respond well to his sessions with the iron.
Hanton admitted that training to match the physique of Hemsworth’s Thor was his most intense to date; noting that consuming huge amounts of calories on a daily basis was even more difficult. Downing the equivalent of 35 meals per day takes some serious dedication to your craft, and that’s just what the stuntman did to be worthy of wielding the hammer.
In a recent interview with Muscle & Fitness, Hanton discussed how strict his diet had become in order to achieve the God-like physique the studio demanded. Chris is not just big, but he’s super lean. So to try and put on the size and stay lean was the hardest. It was also very important for me to eat within half an hour of waking up to kick start my metabolism. So what kinds of things did the shredded stunt double eat? Find out here.
As for training, Hanton regularly performed two-a-days in the gym, five or six days a week. To really put on the finishing touches, he would kick into a higher gear as the shoot became closer, and he extended each workout from an hour to 90 minutes. Did going to all those extremes with his diet and training pay off in the end? Judging from the pics above, we’d say yes!
