Stunt performer Luke Davis tells GQ that, for someone willing and eager to absorb bumps and bruises, his line of work is a dream job. “We get paid to get dressed up in costumes and play around,” he says. “They put us on wires and they make us their own personal amusement rides. It takes a lot of work to make them look the way they want, but you get to pretend to be the heroes you grew up with every single day. You can’t ask for more.”
Davis is often brought in as a stunt double for fellow large Australian Chris Hemsworth, most recently in Furiosa. He has also turned himself into a projectile for films like the The Invisible Man, Thor: Love and Thunder, Extraction 2, and Halo. And on a recent call, he broke down how he keeps his body in shape to take a beating every day.
For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and other high performers about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.
GQ: What’s your daily nutrition? And does it change depending on the role?
Luke Davis: It definitely changes. For Furiosa, it didn’t really matter that much, as long as I was fairly lean, because I was doubling a guy who is completely covered up in leathers and a mask. On that one, I just ate pretty normal, tried to maintain weight—just a three-meals deal. Usually, that’s catering from work for two of those meals.
Right after that job was Halo, which was upwards of 6,000 to 7,000 calories a day for the 11 to 12 months that we were shooting. That was usually three shakes that were about 1,200 calories a shake, and then four or five meals, depending on their size. That was usually steak, rice, chicken, broccoli—pretty clean calories for that one.
How much weight did you need to put on for that job?
Pablo’s (Schreiber, the Halo lead) weight was close to 240, and I was coming in at 180 from Furiosa. Over the first few months of being there, I was able to get back to around 220, 225. That one was a little easier than most jobs because we had a really big gym that we had access to in our rehearsal space, so we could just work out for a couple of hours in the morning, work all day doing the rehearsal fights, and then you could go again in the afternoon before you went home. It was mostly weight training. We didn’t need to do any extra cardio for Halo because we were wearing a 40-pound sauna suits doing the Master Chief stuff. So you got all your cardio out doing that.
So when you’re not bulking, what’s your normal diet like?
I prefer to get my first lot of breakfast in through a shake. I usually go to the gym and then I’ll have a shake with egg whites, spinach, banana, peanut butter, protein powder, and whatever berries I want to put in at the time. Right now, especially, on set, they have a chef, so I’ll do scrambled eggs most mornings with either ham or turkey and spinach. If I’m being good, which my wife helps me with, I’ll usually have quinoa, spinach, rice, capsicum and all that. And then dinner, usually some barbecue or something. Just some chicken on the barbecue, usually with some grain or potato. Sweet potato is my favorite. But my wife’s in the stunt industry as well, so she’s better at knowing the importance of healing with good food—she usually takes care of me in that department.
I imagine a job like that comes with a lot of injuries. What was the worst injury that you’ve had, and how did you train back into a fighting shape? Because I imagine if you’re hurt, you don’t get paid, right?
On Extraction 2, I tore the fluid back around my elbow, and that one took…it still gives me grief now. But if you can train through it, you do. Otherwise, after that job—basically, I just didn’t let coordinators know I was back in Australia so that I would have some time off right after the job and just let it heal. The hope is that you get long enough runs that you can heal up in between and be good to go for the next one.
What was the biggest and most dangerous stunt that you’ve done?
Just the other day was the Taurus World Stunt Awards, and I was nominated for Hardest Hit. I didn’t win, unfortunately. One of the guys from John Wick did a 200 stair fall and got it. But in Extraction 2, I got thrown on a treadmill onto my head. I landed in what’s called a scorpion with your legs up over your head, and then a wire pulled me off the treadmill, through a window, and off the second story balcony. That what was nominated. So I’d say that’s probably the hardest or biggest stunt I’ve done.
How long does it take you to recover from taking a like that? Are you back at it for the day or do you need to take a day or two to let your body heal when you go through a window?
For the rehearsals, you put more mats down and you can pretty much just do that and then keep rehearsing another stunt that afternoon. If you do it right, as long as you have the right neck flexibility and you dial it in. Usually, the guys doing the rigging, they’ll start pretty slow with not a lot of power, so you can make sure you’re clearing all your lines and getting your shapes right before they really yank you into the wall. But on the day for that one—luckily, it was the last shot of the day, but I wouldn’t have been doing anything else the rest of that day, just from the amount of brain shake from landing off the balcony onto the ground. It didn’t hit my head, but it’s just enough impact that I was probably close to concussed, if not concussed. So that one, I would say, even if I was telling them that I was good to go, they’d be like, no, it’s all right! Sit over there, that’s fine, you can take your day.
I imagine that all requires a ton of flexibility. What’s your stretching regimen?
I recently have realized how bad my flexibility is based on all the incredible performers around me. So I’m working on my lower back and my neck—because of training things like a taco, where you try and fold in half front ways or knowing that I like to do scorpions. I’ve been pretty specific on just making sure my neck is flexible enough that it can stop on my shoulder before the tendons start to tear.
I try and stretch for at least half an hour to an hour each day. I’m not very good at sticking to that, but it’s definitely something that I see around the industry: If stunt guys are left somewhere for 10 or 20 minutes and told to wait, they’ll start just stretching. That’s just how we feel.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
