10 Secret Acting Methods You Never Knew

6. Hugh Jackman Dehydrates 36 Hours Before A Shirtless Scene To Look Super-Ripped

Part of any convincing performance is the actor's efforts to physically resemble the character as written in the script, and as we all know, it's incredibly common for actors to undergo insane physical transformations, especially in order to play muscle-bound superheroes.

If Christian Bale is the master of yo-yoing his weight for dramatic roles, Hugh Jackman is probably the king of getting absolutely jaw-droppingly ripped for tentpole movies.

Jackman got in especially granite-chiselled shape for his roles in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Logan, but if you thought it was as simple as working out like a maniac and eating right, not quite so much.

There's one common trick used by bodybuilders to gain maximum definition shortly before a competition, and one which has also been adopted by Jackman and other actors ahead of shirtless movie shoots.

Basically, in the 36 hours before shooting begins, Jackman dehydrates himself by not drinking any water at all, to ensure that he sheds all the possible water weight and looks as vascular as possible on-screen.

But it's also worth noting that Jackman does this under the intense supervision of professionals, because once you factor in 36 hours of hydration and a day's shooting of up to 18 hours, you're basically half-way to dying of dehydration already.

The results are certainly spectacular, but you can imagine that Jackman must be glad all that graft is now done with.