Shocking Estimate: Half of Marvel Actors Allegedly Use Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Muscle Gains!

In recent times there’s been a lot of discussion regarding unhealthy body image representation among male actors. Primarily action stars and superhero movies stars who are often under pressure to look like their very superhuman counterparts ripped from the pages of comics.

Both Hugh Jackman and Henry Cavill have found themselves as the target of criticism, Cavill for his dehydration strategy in ‘Man of Steel’ and Jackman for his rigorous diet to maintain a lean physique in his 50s to portray Wolverine in the ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’

While we are aware that the bodies we see on screen are a product of much more than just diets and workouts, it hits differently when you get a medical perspective on it, and if Dr. Todd Schroeder, associate professor of clinical physical therapy and director of the University of Southern California Clinical Exercise Research Center at the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, speaking to Variety is to be believed, it’s almost impossible:

Though forbidden by sports leagues, many steroid treatments are perfectly legal. At least for the short term,I would say that fifty to seventy-five percent do.’

No Marvel actor has publicly admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), but the landscape of PEDs has evolved and grown significantly. Once a secretive and risky method for gaining muscle and strength, PEDs are now more common among athletes and performers, leading to increased research and understanding of their effects.

“Nowadays, it’s kind of expected and, working under a doctor’s care, it’s really been accepted. A lot of actors won’t talk about it openly, but they will work with a physician as well as a nutritionist and a trainer, and it’s a team. It’s not smart for an actor to do that alone. The big thing is, you can take steroids, testosterone, different androgens, growth hormone for a short period of time without any lasting effects on the body. It’s not like you become addicted to it.

There’s long-term health concerns, but short-term, there really isn’t. So if you’re preparing for a role, and you’re going to get paid ten million dollars to look a certain way for a role? Then why wouldn’t you do it under a doctor’s care? Take some things that aren’t natural but will change your body to look the way they want it to look, and gets you the recognition?

Amazingly, Dr. Schroeder notes that his comments are based on professional observation and uses Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor, as an example of a potential natural physical transformation, stating that Hemsworth’s physique might be achieved without performance-enhancing drugs.

He’s always been in really good shape. His family, his genetics—they all, if they work out a little bit, they get in really good shape, and so he’s taken it to the next level. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, he does steroids, for sure.’ And my opinion? I would say, ‘No, he does not.’

What Doctor Schroeder has said was something that Evans recently told the press as well, that Hemsworth is literal Thor and there’s no competing against him:

There’s no comparison. I mean come on, it’s very difficult to stand next to him. He literally, he is Thor. It’s not just like a costume. He is enormous. It’s difficult to try and keep up.

Do you agree with Dr. Schroeder? Let us know in the comments below!

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