Joe Manganiello: From skinny to ripped
Joe Manganiello, towering at 6 feet 5 inches, was named People magazine’s Hottest Bachelor Alive in 2014. That title won’t hold too long though because invitations have already been sent for his November wedding to sexy actress Sofia Vergara.
He was very athletic in school and played varsity in volleyball, basketball, and football where he was team captain. “I was going to go play basketball in college. I was set to do that, and I was going to study criminal justice. But at the last minute in high school … we had a TV studio and you could take TV classes. And I started writing and directing and producing films and TV shows. And then starring in them. I wound up trying out for the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. I think they took 17 actors out of 800 who auditioned from around the world, and I was one of them. And they gave me a scholarship to go to the school; I really got in at the last minute,” Joe told Muscle & Fitness magazine.
Joe got his bachelor’s degree in drama from Carnegie Mellon University in 2000. Two years later, he landed his first acting job as Flash Thompson in Spider-Man. “I screen-tested, alongside James Franco, for my part in Spider-Man (2002) the week after I graduated from CMU and got the part. However, it didn’t start shooting for six months, so I paid the bills as a bodyguard for singer/actor Tyrese Gibson and as a bouncer at a Mexican rock bar and an after-hours club,” he recalled.
Joe learned chess at age five and was reading J.R.R. Tolkien and Stephen King at a very young age. He was into drawing, painting, writing, and was crazy about comic books. He found Arnold Schwarzenegger interesting. Built like the heroes in his comic book, yet Arnold struck him as very intelligent. Joe also found out that Arnold was a chess player, too. They easily became friends when the two met on the set of the movie Sabotage.
Like Arnold, Joe came up with a bodybuilding book Evolution: The Cutting Edge Guide to Breaking Down Mental Walls and Building the Body You’ve Always Wanted, released in 2013. A second printing became necessary five days after its release.
“My fitness advice for others? There’s always going to be somebody bigger than you in the gym — and somebody else skinnier than you. You’re always going to be right in the middle — unless you’re me. I was the absolute skinniest. I was the one who couldn’t do one dip or one pullup. And even if you’re that person, there’s still hope for you. So just get in there and get to work,” he told Muscle & Fitness where he was the cover story.
“The link between my acting and my fitness is an interesting thing. I think that I was doing great work for years. I’ve been acting for 22 years. I started in classical theater. I started doing Chekhov and Ibsen and Shakespeare. And I was in sitcom after sitcom after sitcom. I did some plays that were nominated for awards. But none of those were a break until the physicality melded with the acting in True Blood. People really took notice,” he added.
“I started working with my trainer, Ron Mathews, right after I booked True Blood. My workouts with him are long and tough. It’s called being in the pain cave. There’s a moment when there’s going to be 10 sets. And I’m on Set 5 or even Set 4, and I’m done. My body is starting to quit, I’m having a minor league panic attack in my brain because I can’t visualize doing the next rep, let alone the next set, and I want to quit. And I think, ‘What am I doing this for? I don’t have a movie coming up that I’m training for specifically. If I walked away or I quit, nobody would know. Who cares?’”
“And that’s where you’re going to grow. That’s the spot. That’s when you crack the pit, if you will. And that seed is inside. That’s the good stuff. And you just put your head down, and you focus on the next rep. And then the next rep. And then the next rep. And then the next rep. And you keep moving. And you think you’re going to have a heart attack and that you’re going to drop dead. And you just push through and realize you’re OK. And you realize you could complete the workout. And you realize it was the mind trying to stop you from achieving.”
His book Evolution is all about that, he explained. It’s about putting yourself into a position where training becomes mental, not just physical. It’s about challenging one’s self and pushing the mind past perceived limitations.
To stay in peak form for True Blood, Joe worked out twice a day, six days a week. “And it’s protein from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. It’s just protein and vegetables every day. But I get one cheat meal a week.”
In 2009, he essayed the role of Lt. Sean Macklin in the movie Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia. He trained for several months prior to the shoot with a former Navy SEAL. When he found out that the studio didn’t have a Navy SEAL to consult, he flew his own trainer to the set in Puerto Rico at his own expense to add authenticity to his portrayal.
Quite recently, he starred in Magic Mike XXL where his physique, of course, was highlighted. He had this to say about being regarded as a sex symbol: “It’s flattering, but it’s not really something I need to be concerned with. I’m glad people feel that way, obviously, but it doesn’t change the fact that I have to haul my ass to the gym every day and then get home and study.”
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