Do Americans care more about looks than Britons? Actor Tom Ellis certainly believes so. Here is what he said about the differences in work ethics in the two countries.

Last month, Ebenezer Samuel and Dr. Pat Davidson hosted British actor Tom Ellis on their podcast, Strong Talk. During their conversation, the Lucifer star reflected on how working in America changed his perspective on competition and work ethic. He also noted that physical appearance plays a role in the American entertainment industry.

"I was establishing a nice career there. I was going from job to job and, at the time, doing the bare minimum amount of work and prep to do that. My first experience of coming to the States was that I was this little pale, skinny British guy," Ellis joked. "Everyone else there just looked jacked or looked like they looked after themselves."

According to Ellis, the obsession wasn't limited to Hollywood; it was deeply rooted in American culture, just more evident in people working in the media. Ellis clarified that he wasn't suggesting that one approach was better than the other; he was merely pointing out the cultural distinction. 

Ellis' American experience forced him to reevaluate his own approach to his career. Thus, he developed a new mindset, where he focused on preparation rather than simply relying on talent. He said, 

"I got to a point in my life where I was like, I don't want to ever walk out of an audition wishing that I'd worked harder for the audition."

The new work ethic worked and it resulted in him getting better roles. And the biggest one to date is Lucifer, for which Ellis admitted to undergoing a proper transformation.

Tom Ellis's Workout For Lucifer

Tom Ellis explained that while training for Lucifer, his goal was to build a larger and more aesthetic body. So, he went from weighing 198 lbs to weighing 228 lbs, but eventually he cut down to around 220 lbs.

Ellis talked about this during a 2019 interview with Men's Health. 

"When we were getting into shape for Lucifer Season 4, I really wanted to gain some muscle mass. We were going to train six days a week. We would do four days of it as an upper-lower body split using big compound movements to get the big muscles going."

His training routine included:

Warmup

Treadmill

20 minutes consisting of:

5 minute jog

45 second sprint, 15 second walk intervals

The Lucifer Upper Body Workout

• Bench Press (4 sets of 8 to 10 reps)
• Pullup (4 sets of 6 to 10 reps)

Superset

• Seated Overhead Pres (4 sets of 8 to 12 reps)
• Cable Lateral Raise (4 sets of 12 reps per side)
• Wall Curl (4 sets of 10 reps per side)

10 to 15 minutes of stretching to cool down.

What are your thoughts on Ellis' physique?

Follow Bodybuilding Bros for all things fitness!

Written by

Ruwa Javed

Edited by

Zaid Quraishi