Jack Whitehall has revealed that he was urged to ‘hit the gym’ if he wanted to make it in Hollywood.
The British actor and comedian, 33, is making a serious name for himself in Tinseltown, starring in huge US movies including Jungle Cruise and Clifford the Big Red Dog.
However, he was warned by his agent that he needed to bulk up after he showed off his absolutely normal body in a recent film.
Speaking on the Manatomy Podcast with Danny Wallace and Phil Hilton, Jack revealed he recently watched the first cut of an upcoming movie with his agent, with some unexpected results.
He explained that the film contains a scene ‘where I strip naked and my clothes are ripped from me’, which Jack found funny, but his agent had other ideas.
At the end of the screening, Jack was approached by his agent and told in no uncertain terms: ‘It was great, you’re really good and you’re really funny, but I’ll say this again because I’ve said it a few times – you’ve really got to hit the gym.’
The agent reiterated: ‘To be a really successful actor in this town, you’ve got to hit the gym.’
Jack admitted he was surprised by the comment, saying the idea of having to change his body ‘hadn’t even crossed my mind’ when watching the scene.
‘I just watched my sort of pallid, flappy body just lolloping around and thought, that’s fine, that’s funny,’ he told the podcast.
His agent, meanwhile, ‘had been watching it through gritted teeth thinking “Oh my God, why does my client look like that? Why is he so unashamedly willing to present that body to the world?”‘
The Bad Education star insists he is not ashamed of his body, saying he ‘didn’t watch [the scene] through gritted teeth’.
‘I didn’t look at my body and go “Oh God, why have I done that?” I just watched it and thought “Oh, that’s quite funny”.’
Jack is currently enjoying a successful career in Hollywood despite the fact that he doesn’t have a six-pack, with family-friendly Clifford performing well in cinemas.
The comedian plays Casey in the big-screen adaptation, alongside Darby Camp, John Cleese, Kenan Thompson and Tony Hale, and tried his hand at an American accent for the flick.
Chatting to Metro.co.uk recently, Jack admitted getting to grips with the accent was tough – particularly because he was surrounded by other actors doing English accents.
He explained that he ‘had to do these scenes where I was trying to do an American accent and everyone else was speaking in an English accent around me, and trying to steer me off course.’
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