Hollywood stars know that they are not only on view while on the screen; with paparazzi, and, now, cell phone cameras and social media, they feel the need to look their best even on the street. They have their own trainers, nutritionists, and all kinds of wellness coaches, for sure, but we found the women nominated for Best Actress work for every inch of muscle they displayed on the Oscar Red Carpet. (Well – at least most of them!)
While La La Land’s (and Oscar winner for Best Actress in a Leading role) Emma Stone’s trainer has all of his top Hollywood clients do Dead lifts, Sled pushes and Hip thrusts, Nicole Kidman (Lion) prefers running and yoga as her source for fitness. Natalie Portman (Jackie) endured 6-hours-per-day ballet training for Black Swan and still seems to keep that lithe and graceful movement. Either Isabelle Huppert doesn’t seem to have a trainer or a program and simply looks amazing at 63 or she is simply French and leads the French lifestyle. My personal ah-ha was Ruth Negga who digs Krav Maga as her preferred method to staying fit. And, the queen of it all, Meryl Streep, does everything in her life, even fitness in moderation, saying “I don’t obsess about anything.”
Stone’s training for many long takes of dancing in La La Land came after hours upon hours of “gym coaching.” Moore says of Gosling and Stone, “I would start giving them exercises — some days it was tap exercises, other days it was a waltzing exercise, and other days, it would be a jazz-dancing-type exercise. And in those exercises, I was working on their coordination and their agility, and then also their ability to recognize and repeat patterns of movement to music.” Stone confessed to Ellen she is a profuse sweater, saying after one minute of exercise, or dancing with Ryan, he’d asked her if everything was ok. Stone is 28.
Stone’s trainer Jason Walsh takes a page out of the same playbook we do at Fitness on the Run, saying “Cardio is nothing if you don’t move well. Staying strong supports the skeletal system, stabilizes joints, makes your cardio safer and more effective,” he said. “If strength training is done right, you get plenty of cardio from lifting as well. Cardio comes secondary.”
Stone’s Oscar night gold dress looks like a girl who’s been dancing that number of hours! And she hangs with her brother. Gotta love that!
Kidman says a lot of her fitness nowadays comes from being a mom of two young children and chasing her musician husband Keith Urban around the globe. She has said that she comes from a marathon-running family in Australia and loves running to music in the woods. She does regular 55-minute Pilates sessions and a weekly spinning class, and favors cardio workouts on a cross trainer.
Kidman says, “Over the years I’ve realized that if you don’t have your health, you’ve got nothing. So that comes first. And how do you get that when you have two little kids, and a husband, and a lot of work? I work for balance now. I do yoga, and I run, and I meditate. I take really good care of myself and I eat well.” Kidman is 49.
Portman got fit for Star Wars and Jackie with her very-much regular routine of exercises for one hour, four days in a week. Her regular workouts and exercises include swimming, stretching, spinning, Pilates, and elliptical machines.
Portman, an avid vegan, believes Pilates and elliptical machines strengthen her body, spinning boosts her metabolic process, and swimming makes her legs and heart stronger, while stretching works to make her body supple and flexible. She is 35.
Ruth Negga (Loving) practices Krav Maga training, a form self-defense and taught for the Israeli Military. Negga loves the Krav Maga so much it has become her preferred mode of workout. Negga tries to visit her Krav Maga studio to hone her self-defense skills and to remain in best shape. Negga is 35.
Meryl Streep (Forest Foster Jenkins), nominated for an Oscar 20 times, keeps toned by swimming three or four times a week, sometimes even logging up to a mile a time, and says she walks wherever she can. She is 66.
And not to ignore the actors completely, Denzel Washington follows a very strict diet that mainly includes high-protein, low-carb foods, such as chicken, turkey, and fish. For his clean carbohydrate needs, he prefers brown rice and whole grains. His best fitness trick: boxing. He is a devoted boxer and believes it’s the main reason why his 63-year-old body has remained fit. He and his wife tonight looked amazing and strong — he in his cool suit and tie and she in her stunning red dress. Experienced and strong.
