Nicholas Galitzine isn’t used to seeing himself as an action figure. The 31-year-old had better get used to it. After breaking through in the 2020s with movies like the romantic RED, WHITE, AND ROYAL BLUE and the absurdly funny BOTTOMS, he’s now tasked with bringing Prince Adam of Eternia and his all-powerful alter-ego He-Man to life in a new MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE movie. That job is not one he’s taken lightly, as he’s transformed his body—tacking on as much as 55 pounds, eating as many as 5,000 calories a day—along the way to herodom.
This new MASTERS movie is more than just a retro superhero play, and Galitzine’s hero is more than just muscles, brawn, and that classic bob of blonde hair. As masculinity continues to evolve, this He-Man knows there’s more to real heroics than just ripped, shredded abs. Featured in the latest MEN’S HEALTH digital cover profile, Galitzine opens up about packing on 55 pounds to play He-Man, masculinity, looksmaxxing, the meaning of muscle, and more.
On the He-Man action figure made in his likeness:
“It’s very surreal…Playing with action figures birthed my sense of creativity and imagination, in some sense. And so it’ll be a very good Christmas gift to all my nieces and nephews. Maybe a bit egocentric to hand out versions of yourself to people, but still.”
On there being more to real heroics than just ripped, shredded abs:
“The muscles don’t maketh the man, really. We live in a physical world, and the aesthetics of both things and people obviously have value in it, whether we like it or not. I mean, He-Man’s superpower is his ability to really connect with people and embrace them and embolden them and collaborate with them. It’s not the superficial.”
On choosing projects and roles across different genres:
“I’m not someone who necessarily just wants to make art house movies all the time, but I need it to feel like there’s some sort of nuance, or multifacetedness, or moral gray, or something very human that I can dive into if it’s going to have such public appeal and be such a big studio machine.”
On what he had to eat during the bulking period of his Masters of the Universe transformation:
“Truthfully, it was a lot of the typical stuff: a lot of rice, a lot of chicken—not just chicken, but beef and lamb. I mean, there were about six meals a day. I remember it being 10 p.m. and getting a text from my trainer being like, ‘You eating your sixth meal yet?’ And you’re full, and you’re looking at this big pot of rice and protein. You just feel your stomach expanding week on week.”
On how he felt being out in public during the peak of his bulk:
“This notion of being perceived in a state that didn’t feel like me was really, really terrifying.”
On recognizing how out of the ordinary his physical transformation was:
“A lot of people think this is quite attainable, but it was a full-time job for me.”
On the iconic He-Man line, By the power of Grayskull, I have the power!:
“I don’t know if it’s as iconic as ‘The name’s Bond. James Bond.’ But it’s up there in terms of you associate that line with the character. And so people are expecting something from you.”
On how the explosive, exciting energy behind Masters can be seen as a course correction for a world that’s lost its willingness to sit with something just a little goofy and fun:
“I worry that sometimes we’ve lost this real sense of sincerity in these worlds. I think in keeping with the lack of color and vibrancy in a lot of these movies in recent times, we’ve lost the vibrancy of performance. Yes, this is honest, and sincere, and very silly, but we can really enjoy it. We obviously still poke fun at ourselves in a way, but there’s nothing embarrassed about it.”
On looksmaxxing:
“I find this looksmaxxing to be a little bit comical. It’s very lacking in self-awareness at times, and there’s humor in it, but we’ve always done something of that iteration. Makeup is as old as time, and I suppose you could say that’s looksmaxxing in some ways. But where it’s going seems completely out of control.”
On his teenage days as an athlete and rugby player:
“I was 14, 15, 16, and I had this real looming sense of cosmic wonder and fear. I was really, really sensitive and emotional and I had no outlet for it. It really wasn’t until acting, in a lot of ways, that helped me process that.”
On the role models he had growing up:
“I mean, I had fantastic male role models, really, in my father and my uncles, my grandfather, but I grew up around a lot of amazing women as well. And so these concepts of masculinity, femininity seem rudimentary.… How something as complex as humanity can be so binary is almost laughable. I really, truly believe this guy that I’m playing embodies the best of both worlds.”
On the notion that a man can be both a big badass with huge muscles who punches bad guys in the face—and also kind, caring, considerate, and eager to solve problems:
“For me, it’s not really a conversation that needs to be had; it’s just a reality. We are many, many things, and we should embrace those many, many things.… This notion of being able to talk about how we feel is obviously central to our movie, but something hopefully the movie can really perpetuate in other young men.”
On his future projects:
“What you’re going to see in the next few years for me are movies I feel really, really passionate about for different reasons. To me, the greats are the people who are completely unpredictable and surprising.”
[Photo Credit: Sandro Baebler for Men’s Health]
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