The star of telly drama Jamestown has told how he took drastic measures to achieve the rippling physique he displays in the show.
Stuart Martin admits he was terrified when he realised he was going to be walking around in a loin cloth in front of millions of viewers as he was so out of shape.
The 33-year-old, from Ayr, said: “A couple of months before we started filming, I thought, ‘I’ve got to get to the gym.’ I had been a resting actor, enjoying my life at home, and I was about 15st.
“I was chatting to a trainer and told him, ‘I have got to get my kit off for most of this season.’ He took one look at me and went, ‘You need to get on it, mate.’”
Richard Madden fears he's projecting 'unrealistic body image' over movie star physique, Stuart’s co-star in 15th-century Italian drama Medici: Masters of Florence, has recently spoken out about the pressure on male actors to lose weight for roles.
While Stuart admits he was doing it through personal vanity, he says it was also for the character.
Richard Madden fears he's projecting 'unrealistic body image' over movie star physique
He added: “I dropped about 15 kilos (2.3st) in two months purely for vanity reasons because I knew I was going to be walking about in underpants for the next few months.
“But, at the same time, you sort of feel if I’m supposed to be a hunter-gatherer, you can hardly be bouncing about the forest.”
Series three of Jamestown, which begins on Friday on Sky One and Now TV, is set in America in 1619, with the first women arriving
in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia.
One of his biggest challenges was keeping the weight he had lost for the role off while filming on set just outside Budapest in Hungary.
He said: “Budapest has nice restaurants and wine and great pasta. Everyone else was going off having a lovely time when they had a day off.”
He had to keep an eye on his weight for his next role too – working with Scottish director Michael Caton-Jones on a film adaptation of The Sopranos.
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It’s another huge step forward in a career which already has its fair share of highlights.
His previous work includes working with Danny Boyle on police show Babylon, starring opposite Donald Sutherland in international crime series Crossing Lines and working with Dustin Hoffman on Medici: Masters of Florence.
Stuart, who is married to actress Lisa McGrillis, is also keeping in shape with one eye on whether or not his pal Madden gets offered the role of James Bond.
He added: “I hope he is Bond. Give it back to the Scots. If he doesn’t do it, I will.”
