Eiza González is action cinema’s latest star and has the stamina to prove it.
The 35-year-old has been gearing up for the release of several films this year, including “Ash” and “Fountain of Youth,” both of which involve González in rather “physical” roles.
“Ash,” released March 21, is a psychological thriller in which González plays Riya, a part she tells TODAY.com was “very taxing on my body.”
“‘Ash’ is a very physical movie in the sense that it’s not action-based in the way that I’m doing stunts, fighting, coordination, though there is a lot of that,” she explains. “It’s more that it was a challenging film because I had to be very physically built in order to play that role.”
Playing Riya involved carrying a weighted camera with a harness, as well as wearing an “incredibly heavy” space suit that González says equated to about 22 pounds.
“So the approach to train for those things is completely different,” she says. “It’s really physical, building muscle in the sense that you are strong, like a tree, so you can really keep the strength of your body, so you’re not run down.”
Because her character is on screen for most of the film and the role requires “a lot of hitting and falling accidents,” González says her training for “Ash” involved a heavy emphasis on recovery. This included using a hyperbaric chamber and biohacking.
On the other hand, “Fountain of Youth,” an action film set to be released later this year, required “months and months and months” of intense training, González says.
The Apple TV+ movie sent the cast, which also includes stars John Krasinski and Natalie Portman, filming around the globe in countries including Egypt, Thailand and Austria. Though González remained tight-lipped about her role, she emphasized that she “had to show that I was incredibly built when it came to fight training.”
“I’ve trained in fighting before, but then I had to learn a ton of different techniques. So every single place that we were filming at had its own style of fighting,” she says.
While in Bangkok, Thailand, González says she learned Muay Thai, and in Vienna, Austria, the fighting adapted to a “coordinated dance style.” In Egypt, she says “it became way more hand combat, really direct physical movement.”
Aside from the uniquely stylized fight training, González says she also trained with guns, adding that action movie fans tend to forget that “weapons are heavy.”
“Sometimes the silliest things are the things that take you out on films, like carrying a machine gun, looking like you’re not lost while doing it, feeling strong, not getting tired, wrecking your body,” she says. “It’s all the little things that look so seamless in two seconds or five minutes of a scene that really become challenging.”
González explains that while she didn't necessarily have to maintain a specific physique while filming the action film, she needed stamina.
“What people don’t know when you’re watching action is that you’ve been doing these stunts for 16 hours,” she says. “And I do stunts across the entire movie.”
In terms of her diet, González says she’s typically “very disciplined with my eating,” but that wasn’t always the case while training for “Fountain of Youth.”
“When you’re filming around the world and you’re getting the opportunity to be in Thailand, I’m not gonna lie, I was in that Thai market every other day, eating Thai tea and sweets and all the natural fruits,” she says, explaining that she took a deep dive into the history of the food in each culture where they filmed.
“And when you’re doing that amount of training, you can cut yourself some slack and kind of indulge,” González continues.
Eiza González’s workout routine
When it comes to working out when she's not filming an action-packed thriller, González says her primary reason for staying in shape isn't physical.
“For me, it’s less about the way that I look and more about a mental state,” she says. “My vessel to release anxiety and stress is working out.”
Especially because she spends most of her time traveling, González says finding the discipline to work out and eat well for her body keeps her grounded.
“That’s really been life-saving because, as every other girl, my skin goes crazy if I eat sugars. And I love chocolate, I love desserts. I love food. And so it’s not easy for me,” she says.
González continues, “I really want to share it, because I sometimes see girls on TV, on screens, and even my peers, I’m like, ‘How do they stay in shape?’ Even being in the industry, I struggle because it’s not easy to have discipline when you’re traveling so much, or you’re like, ‘I’m sad today.’”
Her secret? González says it’s all about “finding what I like and what I enjoy.”
“I’ve sort of fallen in love with working out in a way that it doesn’t feel like a job,” she says, adding that she loves Pilates because she finds it targets specific muscle groups in a way that she likes.
“I see such a difference with Pilates because I’ve got that Latin booty, and I think it sags,” González jokes. “Mine sags if I don’t work out for two weeks. My booty is on the floor, and so I really need to be disciplined.”
While Pilates is a mainstay in her workout regime, she says, “In totality, I’m a weightlifting girl.”
“I do a glute workout every day,” she says of her strength training. “That’s the biggest, largest muscle in your body. I have raging scoliosis. I have a lot of damaged discs, and the only time I feel good is when I’m really disciplined about my glute workout and my legs.”
González says she typically avoids lifting heavy for her upper body. And if she's in a time crunch, González says she'll do a quick 15-minute workout video online.
The actor says she can “really wrestle” with the motivation to fit a workout into her busy schedule, but she always looks forward to the feeling she gets after completing her routine.
“You have plenty of excuses to be like, ‘I’m not gonna go.’ I can always find excuses, but I always try to do my best,” González says. “Listen, sometimes I don’t do it, and it’s OK, too. But I really just think about how I’m going to feel so much better when I’m there and the endorphins hitting. I rely on that.”
