Bill Skarsgård Ate Raw Eggs, No Sugar to Get ‘Ripped’ for The Crow

Bill Skarsgård had a strict diet and exercise regimen to get “ripped” for The Crow, a remake of the 1994 film starring Brandon Lee.

The 34-year-old actor recently spoke to Variety about achieving the physical transformation required by his character.

The Crow, based on a graphic novel series by author James O’Barr first published in 1989, follows a man named Eric (Skarsgård) who is resurrected after his murder to take revenge on those who killed him and his fiancée (FKA Twigs).

“I’d already been training for quite a while. Me and my trainer kept adding a little bit of weight onto what I’d already be, but I didn’t want to be too big either,” Skarsgård explained. 

“It was a tricky one, because they wanted the Crow to be ripped, but the character Eric shouldn’t be,” he said. “I didn’t feel like the character should be thin, but you can’t afford to split it into six months, the ‘Raging Bull’ kind of way. So we did a lot of weight training and ate a lot of protein.”

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Director Rupert Sanders told the outlet that he was impressed by Skarsgård’s dedication to the role. 

“I’d take Bill out to dinner. I’d always just order for him because I knew what he was eating,” he said. “It’s basically steak tartare and raw eggs. He was in the gym a lot. He ate very healthily and put us all to shame when we were eating burgers and hot dogs and working late at night in the Czech summer.”

Sanders added that there’s a lot of complex stunt work in the film, but because of Skarsgård’s fitness routine, he was able to do most of it himself.

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“As you can see, he’s an incredibly physical person. His body in the movie is incredible,” he said. “When he’s on, he’s a real machine of destruction, but also he played these incredible moments of softness and empathy, which really just give the action sequences a lot more of an emotional connection, which is why I think people are really responding to them. They’re not just gratuitous violence. You really feel that you’re in there with the character.”

Skarsgård told Variety that although his diet for the film was intense, it didn’t bother him too much. However, he was excited to celebrate the end of filming The Crow with a beer.

“I really loved what I was eating, so I didn’t feel like I had to cheat,” he said. “I didn’t eat sugar, but I’m not a big sweet guy. I guess my biggest cheat would be an alcoholic beer. I celebrated after the shoot.”