For Jovan Adepo, studying a character means training. It means packing on 40 pounds of muscle for Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us or learning to operate 1940s military weaponry for a World War II–era horror movie.

That eagerness to nail a character’s physicality has now earned him his first Emmy nomination, for his standout turn in Watchmen as the young Will Reeves, a newly minted Black policeman in 1930s New York whose fading faith in the justice system leads him to (spoiler!) disguise himself as a white vigilante known as Hooded Justice. Adepo, who played the role in conjunction with Regina King, roots his performance deep in Will’s body, visibly working overtime to restrain the rage he’s only allowed to unleash when disguised as a white hero. But disappearing into a character’s body was second nature to Adepo, who found out he was being tapped to play Will while trying to lose weight after bulking up for back-to-back projects. When he got the call from Damon Lindelof, he stopped going so hard on cardio and hunkered down to keep his figure solid enough to rock a cape.

GQ caught up with him ahead of the big (virtual) night this Sunday to talk about squeezing in reps on set, the old-school military training he’s using to keep his body nimble, and how he maintains his own mental health while acting out some of the most harrowing scenes on TV.

For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and everyone in between about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

GQ: How did you find out you were being tapped to play a young Will Reeves?

Jovan Adepo: I had just finished a film in Nashville, and I was trying to drop weight to get back to the size that's comfortable for me. Damon Lindelof called right after one of my workouts, and he was like, "What are you doing?" I was like, "I'm just trying to get back in shape and drop some weight, live healthier, and feel lighter on my feet." He was like, "Drop some weight? You shouldn't do that. Keep lifting weights and try to stay as solid as you can.” And then he told me he had a role he was thinking I was right for. He said, "Wherever you're at, just stay there. Don't drop any more." He wanted me to have a believable size that I wouldn't be getting bullied in the streets all the time.

Our bodies looked a lot different in the 1930s. When you look at even bodybuilders in the ’30s and ’40s, they are probably the size of the more muscular baseball players of our time. They weren't massive guys. So I didn't need to be huge, but I was supposed to be tough. They wanted me to look like I could hold my own if I was ever having to get into a scrap.

Naturally, I'm around 175 pounds, and I was playing a former Navy SEAL for Jack Ryan, so I was up to, like, 215, which was closer to how I looked in college when I played football. Whenever you can get a role that they ask you to work out, it feels like you're getting paid to work out, and it's always fun.

You and Regina King worked together for that episode to hold your bodies in a similar way while you alternated playing the same character. What was the physical work to make that happen?

As somebody who grew up at the time, in Jim Crow America, Will is gonna have a level of intensity because of his lack of trust in people. We discussed always having my hands clenched. They were always at my sides, because my character was trying not to appear a threatening Black man. Also, when you're lifting weights, you naturally stand up straighter. That was something I wanted to maintain with him, because that was a way for him to present himself as wide and big as he can. It's a way to deter predators. We talked about always walking with focus or intent, and always being aware of our surroundings.

Courtesy of Rowan Daly

What were you slimming down from when Lindelof told you to stop taking weight off?

Jack Ryan, and then When They See Us. When I was in Jack Ryan, I was doing Olympic lifts, like the hang clean, power clean, deadlifts, and heavy squats. Low reps but the heaviest weight I could manage, between three and four reps. I had meals you probably shouldn't eat every day. I was, like, Hey, come on, I'm bulking right now, I'm cool! I was crushing full rotisserie chickens for dinner. I'd do a really light breakfast, a normal lunch, and then I'd go work out. After the second workout of the day I'd be starving. On the weekends I'd have pizza and pasta. And the only way to protect your body and not clog your arteries that way is to work out.

In Jack Ryan, I knew I was gonna have to run around the jungle and jump, so I needed to be able to move. But when it was time to be Antron in When They See Us, I didn't have any physical thing other than to look big. Antron McCray is a big dude. All I could do was try to get to that. I had my whey protein and my creatine. I was lifting weights every day and eating everything I wanted. I wasn't supposed to be in body-builder shape. Both of those characters were just supposed to be solid. So I didn't have to sculpt or anything, you could just eat what you want and lift hard every day. I had much more free time filming, so I was able to lift a lot more. I brought resistance bands with me to work every day and I'd just squeeze those all the time and do pushups in between scenes to make myself look more toughed-up.

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Then I went to do The Violent Heart and I needed to be slimmer again 'cause I was playing a younger character trying to get into the military. I can tell you for a fact, bulking is the fun and easy part. Losing it is...horrible. I was basically on a keto diet. It can be rough when you're taking roles that require you to look a certain way, just because it adds pressure to the daily routine. But it's a great way to keep you in tune with the character you're playing. So I've always tried to look for parts that allow me to physically alter my appearance as best I can, without doing anything crazy.

So you're not looking to be the next Christian Bale?

I understand why he does it and I absolutely admire it! I'm always rooting for the actor that's committed to going to that extent. That's why he's the best of the best.

Do you find it challenging to alter yourself like that?

It never gets easier. I like my sweets. Snickerdoodle cookies and cinnamon rolls are my favorite. I have no self restraint when it comes to food. So if I need to build or lose, I have to put myself in a very specific mindset.

When it comes to diet, the only way that I'll stick to it is if it's simple. Carbs are a quarter of your plate, another quarter is vegetables, and the bigger part is the protein. I can't stick to a super complex meal plan. If I want to have a little bit of extra flavor or style I'll use a subscription meal plan.

When you need to change your body for a role, what knowledge are you drawing from to put together a plan?

I had a really good head start because I played collegiate sports. You learn the base workout routine you need, the base diet you need. As I started to get older, your body changes, your metabolism changes, so you gotta fine-tune it. I'm always researching. I just started to get really into martial arts and UFC, because those guys are in really great shape. YouTube has complete breakdowns of all these guys' diets, what they do from sun up to sun down. I like looking at Jon Jones or Conor McGregor. And I also have a trainer and a nutritionist that can help guide me.

How long have you been into mixed martial arts?

That's fresh. I did taekwondo when I was a teenager, and then got into boxing. I've always been a fan of UFC, but as far as actually learning the technique and getting involved with the grappling, it's within the last six months with my trainer. It's difficult! It looks way easier on TV. I usually do two hours with my trainer. By the end I'm completely exhausted, but you feel like you can take the world on.

You've played a handful of military characters. Did you get actual military training for any of those?

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I did Overlord back in 2017 and we did military training with the weaponry they used in the ‘40s. Learning the different protocols and hand signals to communicate with other military people was a lot of fun. We did extensive training for Jack Ryan. The hand signals from 2019 are of course gonna be far evolved from the hand signals in the ’40s, and more complex. It makes you feel more immersed in the character, and you understand their world more. The camera will always catch when things look funny. If you're holding a semiautomatic weapon and you can’t change the magazine quickly without looking at it, people will be, like, Eh, that looks a little funky. So you gotta train.

Courtesy of Rowan Daly

Did you pick up any workout routines from those bootcamps?

They were more old-school. Military workouts are usually who can do the most push-ups and sit-ups or run a mile in a certain time. It's not about going to the gym and putting plates on the rack and doing actual lifts. It's waking up at six in the morning and running for three miles, then push-ups, plyometrics, box squats, and sit-ups. That stuff is good to know for situations like quarantine, to stay in shape when you don't have your own home gym. Push-ups, sit-ups, if you can find a pull-up bar, bodyweight exercises, those are always beneficial.

Is that what you've been doing this year stuck at home?

It’s a part of my routine. I have some boxing equipment in my house, and a bunch of resistance bands and dumbbells. I run really early in the morning or late at night when there's nobody on the streets. I'll do push-ups on the sidewalk at every traffic light.

I call it off-season, whenever you're not immediately preparing for a role that's asking for you to shape up or anything. You've gotta be kind to yourself. At the moment I'm staying neutral, so within a 2000-calorie a day diet, running two or three times a week, and I do a one-on-one virtual or outdoors boxing with my trainer. I've been boxing for three or four years now, and it’s a great way for me to maintain my size.

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How are you eating right now?

Not whatever I want. It's harder when you don't have access to a full gym. Whenever a job comes, and it can be sudden, you don't wanna feel too far on either side of the spectrum. If you're super slim and they need you to turn into Superman it's gonna be difficult. So I like to stay in a neutral spot.

I could never just go in and eat whatever I want the whole week, because the way my body's set up, I would blow up. I don't mean that in the sense of my appearance—you always wanna be body positive—but I'd get heavier and it'd be harder for me to run, my joints would hurt more because of my history in sports. My cardinal rule is for or five days out of the week, eat pretty clean. But the weekend? That's party time. You can have your libations, your cookies, whatever.

Do you have any habits or practices you do to keep your mind in good shape?

Around when I graduated high school, my mom started really being interested in yoga, and then she started taking the course to become certified. I was a young teenage boy playing sports, I didn't care about yoga. Once I decided to go to college and started to mature, we had more conversations about what yoga can do for your joints and your muscles and your focus and your breathing. She'd give me training videos to take on campus during my off-seasons. It's a great way to maintain flexibility, because at some point you can sacrifice flexibility with all that muscle mass. Just trying to find ways to evolve your body and your spirit and your mind. I don't know if I would've stuck with the practice if my mom hadn't introduced it to me when she did.

So she brought yoga and meditation into my life early on. She’s also a homeopathic nutritionist, and when I have focus issues or trouble sleeping, she makes her own teas and multivitamins and stuff. Meditation is something I do every day, which helps being in this incredibly competitive industry. I do yoga maybe once a week.

You've been in some of the most emotionally gutting projects we've seen in the past few years. How do you prepare for and recuperate from those scenes mentally?

Meditation is a big one. Whenever you come upon those scenes where the matter is challenging, I ask for some private time. Even if I can't get it, I go hide somewhere to just think about what's going on, what I need to do. As long as I can tell myself that I'm doing this for a purpose, that this is to tell a story that may help or touch somebody, that gives me a base of strength. A sense of direction.

When They See Us and Watchmen were very difficult between the lynching and the police brutality and the racism. It's not like I can just purge it and go home and have a cocktail and go to sleep. I would rather have this moment of discomfort so that people watching it can actively, enthusiastically tune into what's being shown. Sometimes it can be therapeutic as an actor to give yourself up to those types of roles. I have my own life and aspirations and challenges, and I find security and safety in characters battling things in their own lives. It gives me a sense of duty.

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