Celebrities who play superhero characters should be applauded for the amount of work they put into preparing for their roles. One of these hard-working performers is 29-year-old actress Brie Larson.
Marking the premiere of the first female-led film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Larson’s training to prepare for her role as the Kree warrior Captain Marvel (aka Carol Danvers) resulted in her developing ‘superhuman’ strength through intense training. This is how she did it.
Setting Goals
Larson’s training success is primarily thanks to personal trainer Jason Walsh, who devised her entire training regimen for ‘Captain Marvel’. According to Walsh, the actress had two main goals during her prep for the film: to be both resilient and strong.
Achieving these will greatly help Larson in pulling off the stunts she’s required to do effectively and safely.
A trained actor will also be less prone to injuries during shoots which could then delay the production of a film. And by the end of their months-long training, Walsh says that he was confident to send the actress off to work knowing that she’s achieved her goals.
What more, the celebrity trainer also believes that building strength will build character at the same time. As Walsh put it, one should believe that they have superhuman strength to successfully play a superhero.
Playing the Long Game
Larson and Walsh, we’re in no rush though. In fact, the actress’ entire training period lasted nine months in total.
According to the trainer, he intentionally played the ‘long game’ and approached the task systematically. During the first three months of training, Walsh says he focused on building fundamentals and perfecting the actress’ form for functional movements.
The three-month phase also involved the identification and correction of Larson’s so-called weaknesses and physical asymmetries. He also noted that he did this all before adding weight training into her regimen.
After phase one is done, Walsh had Larson entered into what calls a ‘maintenance program’. In these months, she focused on learning and mastering fight scene choreography for the film.
But while the first two phases of her training were challenging, the final phase is a whole other beast to tackle it seems.
Final Stretch
During the final stretch of her training to become Captain Marvel, Larson reportedly spent 12 hours working out at the gym each week with only one rest day at that. But it doesn’t stop there. She was also due for hours a week to train for fight scenes.
Walsh was admittedly pushing the actress to her limits. However, he says that was also adjusting his plan to make sure that she stayed safe and healthy all throughout. In the end, though, their joint efforts were all worth it as ‘Captain Marvel’ became a resounding financial success.