• 3 months ago
The Boys actor Laz Alonso takes us through his diet and exercise routine that he uses to stay in shape to play Milk. He explains how he has approached creating the look for his character across all four seasons of the show. We also get some inside scoop on what Laz's costars' diets look like.
Transcript
00:00Man, I thought this interview was gonna be
00:03about how good I eat,
00:04and I have literally destroyed my credibility.
00:08What can I say?
00:09You know, I love food.
00:10I'm a foodie.
00:11I am a foodie.
00:11♪♪
00:17Hello, I'm Lazzalonzo.
00:18I play Mother's Milk on Amazon Prime's The Boys,
00:21and today I'm gonna tell you what my diet looks like.
00:24I was heavy on caloric surplus
00:28when I first started this show.
00:30Seasons one and two, I wanted to look like the comic.
00:34Season three, we shot during and after COVID,
00:38and I went from looking like the comic
00:40to looking like a very inflated version of the comic.
00:44Uber eating every day, eating a lot of pizza,
00:47eating a lot of burgers.
00:48I discovered Toronto's best pizzas and burgers,
00:52and I put on close to 40 pounds.
00:54It didn't hit me until I saw the promotional posters
00:59for season three, and I saw my face,
01:01and I was like, who the heck is that?
01:03And I actually asked Amazon if they had added weight to me.
01:07I didn't realize how big I had gotten.
01:09For a guy that's six feet with shoes on,
01:12I was pushing 250, and it was a lot of weight,
01:15and it wasn't healthy.
01:16Season four came around.
01:17I wanted to do something real different.
01:19I always meet with Kripke at the top of the season,
01:21and he told me, he said,
01:22this season, mother's milk is gonna go
01:24through a big transition.
01:26So I wanted to, in his OCD fashion,
01:30depict that and show that visibly.
01:32So I went into an extreme calorie reduction.
01:34I shaved because now he reports directly
01:37to the White House.
01:38This guy is back into his regimented military,
01:43you know, way of running things,
01:45and you'll see that as the season progresses.
01:47An average day for me eating is I wake up in the morning.
01:50I usually work out pretty early.
01:51I start off bouncing on a trampoline
01:54just to get everything going.
01:56I have a infrared sauna that I always start
01:59every morning with, and a glass of water
02:01with electrolytes, just to rehydrate my body.
02:05Then I make myself breakfast.
02:06I'll have either a green tea, a matcha latte,
02:09which is my favorite, or a coffee.
02:12And I'll have some egg whites,
02:13and I'll have some rice, and I'll have some
02:16and I'll have some rice.
02:17It's kinda like oatmeal, but it's made out of rice.
02:20That gives me my carbs.
02:21I try to stay away from oats.
02:22And then I go to the gym, and I work out with my trainer.
02:25That's pretty much every day.
02:28My workout consists primarily of weights.
02:31Once I start getting closer to the show,
02:34I change it, and I add in high-intensity interval training.
02:38I wanna be lean, I wanna be hard,
02:41I want my face and my jawline to be chiseled.
02:44And still, they throw some weights in there as well,
02:46but I add that in just to give that character
02:48the look that I'm looking for on camera.
02:53I've done prep and diet for every character that I play.
02:56When I played my character in Jumping the Broom,
02:58I was around 195.
03:00They didn't feel I looked leading man enough.
03:02I looked more like an action star, so I had to drop weight.
03:05When I prepared for Fast and Furious,
03:07I put on lean muscle for that.
03:09I did mostly calisthenics for that.
03:12When I prepared for Avatar, also,
03:14I did a lot of calisthenics to look as lean as possible,
03:17because obviously that would translate into the character
03:20when they digitize it.
03:21For Mother's Milk, I put on weight, probably 15 pounds.
03:25I wish I could say a solid muscle,
03:26but there was some donuts, some pizza,
03:29you know, and some burger weight added in there as well.
03:31Season three, I was Mother's Buttermilk,
03:34and I had to change that.
03:37Working on set is tough, I mean, especially on our show.
03:39Eric Ricci is a perfectionist.
03:42That means we're working 14, 15 hour days.
03:46We're doing every single camera angle.
03:48This guy doesn't mess around,
03:50but the proof is in the pudding.
03:53But it's tough to work out and eat healthy
03:57during production.
03:58So I try my best to eat as healthy as possible,
04:01because once I rap, I don't have the energy to work out.
04:04Tomer, who plays Frenchie, he thinks he knows everything.
04:07He thinks he is the oracle of literally any subject,
04:11and nine out of 10 times, he's wrong.
04:14He'll sit there and try to tell me
04:16why you should be eating more carbs,
04:19the carbs and the this and the that,
04:20and it's like, bro, like, I got this.
04:22This right here, I got.
04:24I've lived in this body for a long time.
04:26Carl, he's a chicken and salad dude,
04:30literally from when we were kids.
04:32And salad dude, literally from when we start shooting
04:35to when we rap, I think that's all he eats.
04:38Karen is a foodie.
04:39She is like 90 pounds wet,
04:43and she can eat anything she wants.
04:45I'll describe nights hanging with Karen.
04:48Meat sweats and food coma.
04:53Oh, the diet, hands down.
04:55Because the diet involves discipline.
04:57Like the workout, I enjoy working out.
04:59Working out for me is like, it's my favorite pastime.
05:02It's stress reliever, it's therapy,
05:04but the diet is what really, you know,
05:07because on set, they're constantly making snacks
05:10to keep the crew going so that you don't feel the 14 hours.
05:13Your body craves it when it's like 20 below outside
05:16and you're shooting in the snow.
05:17Your body wants some comfort, so that part becomes hard.
05:22Toronto has really elevated the game.
05:27They are masters at pizzas and burgers,
05:31and I discovered Toronto's best smash burger.
05:34And they pair it with onion rings
05:37or some seasoned curly fries.
05:40Their pizzas are just like, you know,
05:41the perfect, perfect combination of crisp, crunch,
05:46a nice crunchy crust, but then the top is like nice
05:50and soft and melted and saucy.
05:53My mouth is watering as we speak.
05:57I've gone to some more peanut butter.
05:58I used to be a chunky guy,
05:59because I felt like I was getting more, you know,
06:01real stuff, you know, peanuts.
06:03But smooth peanut butter, it just doesn't break the bread.
06:06You use it in a smoothie,
06:08but I've been doing more almond butter than peanut butter.
06:13Ooh, out of all my characters, I would say Mother's Milk.
06:16I love his analogies and the way he looks at life.
06:20So if I could have a meal with any of my characters,
06:22it would definitely be Mother's Milk.
06:23I would definitely ask him for advice.
06:27So I was just in London.
06:29I got to work on a film with Guy Ritchie.
06:30Again, this is our second film together.
06:32And I discovered this church
06:34that had been turned into a food hall.
06:37Upstairs in the church, there were these two pop-up shops
06:42that were next to each other.
06:43And it was perfect because I love surf and turf.
06:47I was able to start my meals off with a nice dozen oysters.
06:51And then I would pair it with a nice sirloin steak
06:56and crisps.
06:57They call fries crisps.
06:59I didn't feel as guilty eating crisps.
07:01And a side salad.
07:03Always throw your greens in there.
07:06I eat ice cream in bed.
07:07I've discovered some sugar-free ice cream
07:10that makes me feel a lot better
07:11about finishing up a whole pint.
07:13I thought this interview was gonna be
07:15about how good I eat.
07:17And I have literally destroyed my credibility.
07:20But there is sugar-free ice cream out there
07:22that's very good.
07:25So you know what I do tend to munch on
07:28that helps me lose weight is nuts.
07:30So I'll eat pistachios, macadamia nuts.
07:33Those are probably the two nuts
07:34that I eat the most.
07:35Cashews come in third.
07:36I make my own cashew milk at home.
07:38Sometimes I make cashew and coconut milk
07:40just to stay away from as much lactose
07:43and dairy as I can when I can.
07:45I try to eat as much whole food as possible,
07:47as little processed food as possible.
07:49If you eat more like your parents wanted you to eat
07:53when you were a kid,
07:54you're pretty much on the right track.
07:56I'm Lazzalonzo, and that's what my unhealthy,
07:58healthy diet looks like.

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