I’m in a new NBC show [co-created by Mindy Kaling and co-starring Anders Holm of Workaholics] called Champions, about these two brothers who own a boxing gym in Brooklyn. We have this very simple life until one day my brother’s ex drops off their son. My character has the innocence of a small child. He’s sort of dim.
Paid to Train
Most of the roles for me are the good-looking guy who’s in shape, so it’s part of the job to just constantly go to the gym. But once the pilot got picked up, I stepped up my workouts because of my fear that I’m going to be on television once a week in front of the entire country. My body is naturally very broad, so my goal was to get really lean and toned before shooting. I work out with a trainer twice a week, but I’ve also been doing a lot of boxing. Given the setting of the show, I figured I should learn to box, just in case. Then after a couple of classes, I got hooked.
My brother [Jon Favreau, the former Obama speechwriter turned podcaster] is a huge workout guy and stays in great shape, but he loves to wake up early. He works out at 7 a.m., and that’s just way too early for me. I’m used to waking up at nine and going to the gym around 10. But I’m dying to get my brother to the boxing gym. It takes a lot of convincing, though.
Better Off Sled
The thing that kills me at the gym is pushing the sled. It takes so much strength to push it down the track, like, 20 or 30 yards. It’s cardio and strength training all in one. I don’t necessarily count steps or calories burned or anything like that, because for me, it’s basically how I feel at the end of the day. I don’t really need a device to tell me how much I’ve done. It’s the same thing with diet. I’m never counting calories or anything. I don’t like to complicate it.
Cereal Killer
The thing I have every night that I can’t get rid of is cereal. And the cereal I have is healthy—it’s, like, pumpkin/flaxseed/granola/whatever—but it’s one of those mental comfort-food things that I need every night. I can’t shake it. It’s like I literally have the mind of a 10-year-old. So maybe I do fit this role after all.
