Nicholas Galitzine says transforming into He-Man for the upcoming Masters of the Universe reboot became an all-consuming process involving brutal workouts, daily stunt training, endless costume fittings, and one very firm stance against leather pants.
The 31-year-old actor opened up about the physically demanding role in a new interview with SFX magazine, revealing he spent months preparing to embody the iconic Mattel hero.
“I was in the gym for about three hours a day and I was in stunt training for about two hours every day,” Galitzine explained. “There would be three to four hours of make-up and costume every day, too. It was a life.”
That level of commitment probably comes with the territory when you’re expected to convincingly portray “the most powerful man in the universe” while shirtless for half a movie.
Galitzine admitted one of the biggest production discussions revolved around exactly how much armor — or lack thereof — He-Man would wear throughout the film. “There were lots of discussions,” he said. “The difficult thing we talked about was how much of the film I was going to be uncovered for, because it was pretty much half the film.”
The actor noted that maintaining the hyper-defined superhero physique required for those scenes involved difficult physical preparation and dehydration.
Still, there was apparently one design idea he refused to entertain. “Leather pants were an option for He-Man at one point, and I told them, unequivocally, no,” Galitzine revealed. “I demanded, ‘No leather pants!’”
Somewhere deep in Eternia, the spirit of 1980s He-Man probably nodded in approval.
The actor also detailed how extensively the production tinkered with He-Man’s legendary sword and costume design. According to Galitzine, roughly 12 sword iterations were tested during rehearsals as the team adjusted the weight distribution to make the weapon feel believable in combat scenes.
“At times, my forearms were burning up,” he said. “They’d say, ‘Okay, we need to move the weight from the crossbridge to the pommel and see if that helps.’ It was crazy.”
Costume pieces also evolved throughout production, with boots, chest armor, and overall proportions undergoing multiple redesigns before cameras rolled.
The new Masters of the Universe film continues Mattel’s aggressive push to revive its classic toy properties following the massive success of Barbie.
The reboot stars Galitzine as Prince Adam alongside Jared Leto as Skeletor, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, plus Idris Elba, Kristen Wiig, Camila Mendes, and Morena Baccarin.
Galitzine also admitted seeing his own He-Man action figure for the first time was surreal. “There’s a He-Man Barbie!” he joked. “I’ve never seen hair more coiffed than my Barbie.”
Few career milestones scream “you made it” louder than becoming your own action figure. Especially when the hair apparently looks better than yours in real life.
Masters of the Universe opens in theaters nationwide on June 5th.
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