Stephen Lang is a veteran actor who, throughout his career, has featured in work as varied as Michael Mann’s Manhunter, Fire down below-opposite Steven Seagal and even an episode of the Fresh Prince of Bel air. Most recently his popularity soared following his scenery chewing performance as Col Miles Quaritch in James Cameron’s Avatar.
For Avatar Lang pumped up and packed on some lean muscle, since Quaritch had to be a physically intimidating presence. And if you’ve seen the film you’ll have to agree the 57 year old got himself in great shape. So how did he do it? Erm…no idea. There has been no information released on the specifics of Lang’s training. All we can offer you is the most in depth quotes we could find from the man himself.
“I was relatively buff because I was working in a tanktop half the time on stage anyway, but I just went kind of into hyperdrive after that and really wanted to beat that old body into shape, to get that carcass where…I didn’t want to be looking at it and see anything hanging where it shouldn’t be hanging.”
“Knowing what I wanted to embody in this role, so that I could be the toughest guy on the block, on a planet that’s very full of tough characters, just required training, so I’ve trained a lot. I’ve been a gym rat anyway, that’s my addiction which is better than some of the old addictions I had. I lift a lot of weights, I run a lot. But there are a lot of big guys out there, so it keeps me humble and it keeps me working on it every day.”
Stephen Lang we salute you for your transformation and for your modesty. Part of us wants to know exactly what your training consisted, the other part is grateful you haven’t released a celebrity workout video.
Actually, in character, a Quaritch workout vid would be pretty cool!
