10 Actors Who Went Unnecessarily Muscular For Movie Roles

4. Kit Harrington - Milo (Pompeii)

JK Simmons Is A Policeman
Tri-Star Pictures

Playing a gladiator in Pompeii in 79 A.D., it’s understandable Kit Harington would be required to get in shape for his role in the 2014 romantic disaster film Pompeii, but the shape he achieved was a little less fearsome gladiator and a little more Magic Mike dancer.

Standing at just 5'7" and having chiseled abs that would probably grate off a layer of your skin were you to touch them, Kit probably wouldn’t be that intimidating in a real gladiator tournament – unless you were self-conscious about your body, and then he’d be very intimidating.

He may be no mountain, but to achieve the kind of definition Kit did on his abs for this movie was almost certainly unachievable 2000 years ago. That said, had Kit’s abs not been so glorious, this badly reviewed film would probably have failed to make back its $100 million budget at the box office – so maybe his muscles weren’t so unnecessary after all.

Contributor

I used to get paid to write from an office until Covid took away my office and then took away my job. These days you'll mostly find me in bed binge-watching Buffy or standing outside a club at 10.01pm - hand pressed against the glass with a single tear running down my mask.