Brandon Routh is Superman, and not because he played the character in 2006, but because the dude just seems to have it all figured out — everything from the whole Hollywood thing to staying in shape and feeling great.
I had a chance to catch up with the new star for his training, diet, and life-conquering secrets. And, what we expect to see from his character in season three of The CW’s Arrow.
Don’t miss Routh in Arrow on Wednesday’s at 8/7C on The CW.
MEN’S FITNESS: How would you compare your role as Superman to your new role as Ray Palmer on Arrow ?
BRANDON ROUTH: The human part of Clark Kent versus Ray Palmer whereas Clark is very much kind of introverted, Palmer is definitely an extrovert. So he’s (Palmer) very much more energetic, but they’re similar in their nerdiness. Clark is kind of nerdy and goofy, versus Ray, is a nerd about technology and gets really excited and passionate about the new tech and all.
MF: Who do/did you like playing better?
BR: I mean, Clark is my first love and a great character to play but I am honestly having a fantastic time playing Ray Palmer as well because I get to be funny in both and kind of get to bring out that quality which is something I really enjoy being able to do almost everyday so far.
MF: Any challenges playing this new role?
BR: Challenges… I would say, I have to speak very quickly and not do a lot of stuttering, with Clark I can kind of do some of that, but with Ray he’s kind of a mile a minute and I just have to learn some techie jargon and I’ve actually embraced the challenge but I have to make sure that I’m enunciating very well.
MF: What can we expect to see from your character in season three?
BR: I think Ray’s kind of brought into to show us a bit of a mysterious figure -– we don’t know what his plans are for Queen Consolidated or his plans for Felicity Smoak but except that he wants her to be an employee and its hard to make that happen -– so there’s a lot of mystery shrouding him. Does he have good intent? How does he sort of fold into the rest of the story? I’m kind of really enjoying just learning what it is fleshing out the character and seeing the other interactions of the character in the show so far and developing my own storyline and I’m glad I have the chance to show people how it comes together.
MF: Can we talk fitness? You’re super into it, right?
BR: Oh yes, absolutely, and I was always an athlete growing up. I played soccer and I swam. I played basketball and baseball but I also played soccer and swimming but I played basketball a lot and when I got to L.A. I played charity soccer games but when I acted I got into weight-lifting and that type of stuff and also into nutrition.
MF: You seemed like an “endurance-guy” but got into lifting? Can you tell me about that?
BR: It was kind of awesome because when I first trained for Superman, I had not lifted heavy weights really, I had a trainer and it really never was like, ‘oh I’m gonna go to the gym’ and I’d go and workout once and never come back. I never had education about it. So, my body was really kind of ready for it, because there’s a saying anyway, when you’re new to it you’re body really can put on a lot more muscle easier the first time and that was the case for me you know, having good nutrition and also, supplementation and a lot of time in the gym. I put on 20-25 lbs in about 5-6 months leading up.
MF: That’s significant. That’s a lot of weight.
BR: My body responded very well to lifting heavy weights and lots of egg whites and chicken. I’m not sure I would put on mass the same way now knowing the things I know now about nutrition, I follow more of a Paleo bullet-proof style. It would be a much more gentle approach now, and my body would appreciate it.
MF: You’re a bit leaner now right?
BR: I’m leaner now I’m between 220 and 225. Now, I’m about 210-212, but roughly around the same amount of muscle mass. Give or take, I just lost a little bit of inner fat, the vascular fat. The skinny-fat that you can’t see but you can see it in there.
MF: That’s a good place to be.
BR: Yeah, I’ve been good a year ago I switched my style of eating -– so that’s all I talk about nowadays. It’s been just an amazing way to lose weight, have a tremendous amount of energy everyday and maintain without fluctuating.
MF: What does a typical day would look like?
BR: Are you familiar with bullet-proof coffee?
MF: I heard you say Paleo…
BR: So, bullet-proof coffee is a coffee blended with grass-fed butter and coconut oil.
MF: Hmm. Interesting.
BR: So I’m having 500-600 calories of fat blended in my coffee every morning, the whole idea of this way of eating is that fat is not our enemy, good fat, especially good-quality fat is not our enemy in fact it’s very powerful in overall energy for the body–brain, cognition and function and focus and also in fat-metabolism. It helps regulate hormones, it tells us that we’re full, there’s all of these amazing things but we live in a society that’s been largely living under the idea that fat is bad for us. High fat, low carb, moderate protein. Most of my calories come from fat, then protein then carbs.
MF: That keeps you lean and keeps the muscle on.
BR: I never lost weight before I started doing this, I lost like 20 pounds doing no cardio just lifting heavy weights twice-a-week and started having bullet-proof coffee every morning and just dropping most grains and adding veggies–it’s the most satiating diet plan I’ve ever been on and it cuts the sugar craving.
MF: You just gave out the whole secret to dieting in 30 seconds.
BR: For me, the magic is right there. I think for me it’s gonna stay and people modify it.
MF: I’m glad to hear it has worked for you.
MF: So career-wise, you didn’t think being an actor was possible for you?
BR: Yes, I think what I was saying was that I didn’t <em>think</em> it was possible. How could a kid from a small town in Iowa become an actor? I’m very far away and I know nothing about Hollywood and business and I’ve never taken a real acting class or school. But my parents are both musicians and I was always performing whether it was marching band, jazz band, school choir, show choir, plays, musical theatre and so, I had that thought, but then never thought it would be possible. And when I went to the University of Iowa (proud Hawkeye), it was that course of going to college that I looked into some of the suggestions of some friends and looked into modeling and acting for local commercials just to make money as a college student. And the agency I went to originally then said, ‘hey, there’s this showcase in New York, here’s a place you could go to and you could really be successful’ and I was like, ‘okay I’ll give it a shot.’ That kind of opened up.
MF: And now you are where you are.
BR: And now 14/15 years later here I am.
MF: You’re the man, that’s great. Would you just accredit that to being positive, head-down, grinding out the work and just trying to make things happen?
BR: I would say yes, absolutely, hard work is important -– but not stressing about hard work and just making it as fun as you can and enjoying the process of hard work is what I would say, but hard work is definitely -– whatever that means to you, is definitely important. Being dedicated and following through is important I’ve found in my life, and just being open to suggestions of other people. Being open to walking through doors that you might be scared of. So it’s kind of facing some fears and just peeking around the corner and seeing. For most of these things you can say, ‘oh, that isn’t for me, or that is for me.’ If you don’t get your foot in the water, you’ll never know.
Don’t miss Routh in Arrow on Wednesday’s at 8/7C on The CW.
Variations to this content have been published on MENSFITNESS.com and HUMANFITPROJECT.com
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