The Ethics of Actors Using Steroids

Hollywood has a dirty secret.

Those dramatic body transformations don’t come just from bench press and broccoli.

A-list actors often recruit a helping hand from under the counter supplementation — secret sauce in the form of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) that accelerate muscle growth and fat loss.

The reasons why are fairly obvious: tight deadlines + high audience & studio expectations + the promise of bucketloads of cash = a strong incentive for juicing up.

Scour Youtube comment sections or salty bodybuilding forums and you will find people crying foul over many an actor’s ripped physique.

The people that arouse most suspicion are older actors that defy physiological limits — like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson looking more ripped at 50 than he did in his mid 20s— as well as actors that go through intense body transformations in a short amount of time, e.g. Chris Pratt and Kumail Nanjiani.

Natty or not? debates are fun to gossip about, but does celebrity steroid use present any deeper ethical problems for society?

My Body, My Choice vs The Social Impact of Being Shredded

From the actor’s point of view, they can argue that they have ultimate autonomy over their bodies.

Whatever repercussions steroids or PEDs might have on their body long-term, that’s on them.

It’s not as if they’re competing in professional sports and breaking some ethical code of fair competition. Their industry is make-believe to entertain audiences who want to see engorged superheroes in skin-tight spandex.

However, it’s not the impact of steroids on the actors themselves that’s morally dubious; it’s the impact of their ill-gotten gains on the wider public.

Different people will respond differently to seeing ripped physiques on billboards and screens. Some may see an actor’s radical transformation from shlub to stud, and be inspired towards a path of better physical health.

For others though, these constant aspirational images can accumulate and create a mental burden. There’s an ever-present pressure to have a body that resembles the ones seen in the media.

Each time an actor’s remarkable body is put in the spotlight, it casts a shadow onto those that do not match up.

If a normal person eats healthily and trains relentlessly, few would say that they are wrong to do so because they might make others feel bad about their bodies.

The problem with famous actors though who use steroids to look good is:

1. They have an abnormally high impact in defining body standards — their aspirational images are circulated and reproduced endlessly across billboards, screens, and social media.
2. The explanations behind their physiques are deceptive if they hide their PED use.

Let’s take a hypothetical example: suppose an actor playing a Nordic Superhero in a film franchise which grosses over $1 billion takes PEDs to help build a jacked body.

This may not be problematic per se. But suppose, hypothetically, that said actor sells an app with a monthly subscription outlining workout programmes which suggest that you too can build such a body — a good diet and consistent workout regime will do it…

This is problematic

Peddling lies in this way creates a double whammy of unrealistic expectations. People are fed the messaging that this “unattainable” body is in fact attainable.

A more accurate messaging would include the fact that, as well as hard graft and healthy eating, these bodies are aided by:

• World-class personal trainers, nutritionists, and chefs
• A clear schedule devoid of a full-time job; your job is to look good
• Only being photographed with perfect lighting, and then picking the best shot out of dozens
• Dehydration to accentuate muscular vascularity

Even if you were to factor in all these elements, your average Joe would still be lacking that secret ingredient…

What would happen if actors admitted to taking PEDs?

Suppose a steroid-riddled actor finds that the deception is eating away at their soul, and they decide to come clean about their PED use.

For gym rats that live to lift, their reaction is likely to be, ‘No shit, Sherlock’.

This was the response when the online fitness personality The Liver King revealed to the surprise of absolutely no-one that he was regularly using PEDs.

For those that aren’t mired in the minutiae of muscle growth though, it may come as a shock that their favourite squeaky clean celebrities are taking drugs.

Those who view any sort of drug use as immoral might drop their support, which would certainly not make film studios happy. Higher ups would think twice about hiring actors who speak too loudly about their under the counter supplementation.

So from a financial standpoint, coming clean is borderline career-suicide. But at least morally, they can hold their heads high knowing that they were honest about how they achieved their bodies…right?

Impressionable fans means honesty might not be the best policy

The problem with being completely open about PED use for someone like The Rock, who has millions of fans, is that a portion of those fans will start dabbling in them once they find out their idol does the same.

These are people who might otherwise have remained ignorant of the murky world of PEDs, and would never have considered going down this path if not for their celebrity idol’s endorsements.

This then, is the big problem in coming clean:

No celebrity wants to inspire a generation of impressionable youngsters to start wreaking havoc with their endocrine system.

Full disclosure, I’m no expert in PEDs. There are better informed people that could no doubt argue the case for the safe use of steroids – if you know what you are doing.

But I am confident that if you don’t know what you are doing, you can really mess up your health. Physiological side effects include: infertility; shrinking testicles to the size of marbles; increased risk of heart attacks or strokes; and horrendous acne (link to pic: don’t look if you’re eating)

So if I put myself in the position of someone like the Rock, who has 352 million instagram followers, I can absolutely sympathise with not wanting to jeopardise the physical safety of some of his fanbase.

Psychological harm vs Physiological harm

In coming clean about steroid use, there’s a tradeoff between affecting a lot of people’s psychology, and a smaller, but still significant number of people’s physiology.

The choice is between pressing your thumb on the scale of body dysmorphia for millions, and inducing dangerous physical side-effects for thousands (numbers plucked out of thin air).

It’s not clear which creates more social damage between the psychological and the physiological.

Physiological harm is certainly more visible and visceral when things go south. But widespread psychological damage is nothing to be sniffed at either. A 2019 YouGov survey found that 1 in 10 British men have experienced suicidal thoughts and feelings because of body image issues.

The get-out clause for actors is that the impact of one person’s shredded bod is unlikely to ever be the tipping point for someone’s body dysmorphia. Each actor’s impact will be more subtle, more diffuse, and shared between the entire Hollywood machine.

However, the cause-and-effect through-line is more direct if an actor was to admit to PED use in an interview, and thus inspire someone to start stacking steroids.

For these reasons, there’s a strong argument for prominent actors keeping quiet about their steroid use. They will be taking a PED regimen whilst being supervised by the best doctors that money can buy; not triangulating information between dubious internet forums and sketchy characters that lurk around gym locker rooms.

So when you know others don’t have the resources to mitigate the risks of PED use, it makes sense not to encourage them to pursue the path you’ve taken.

The Ethics of Steroid use

There are two key ethical questions when it comes to PED use amongst actors.

1. Should they use PEDs in the first place?
2. If they do, should they admit to it?

On the first question, I am ambivalent.

Whilst it would be healthy for society if Hollywood stopped raising the body standard bar, I can appreciate the social pressures that actors face on an individual level to look a certain way – particularly when others in their position are dosed to the gills.

Take Lance Armstrong’s decision to dope – if he chose not too, he would not have won his accolades. Everybody was doping, and if you didn’t, you weren’t going to win.

Presumably, in the minds of some actors, this is the precarious situation they find themselves in.

Kumail Nanjiani, who got absolutely shredded for his Marvel role, had this to say about his motivation:

“I’m playing the first South Asian superhero in a Marvel movie. I don’t want to be the schlubby brown guy – I want to look like someone who can hang with Thor and Captain America.”

It is bold and commendable when some actors take a principled stand against studio exec body expectations – like Robert Patterson who dragged his feet over getting jacked for The Batman, or Jennifer Lawrence who refused to lose substantial weight for The Hunger Games for fear of affecting young girls’ body self image.

However it is wishful thinking to hope for every actor to plant a flag in the sand over this issue, particularly when success in that profession is so rare.

So I am reluctant to judge any actor too harshly for whatever they decide to put into their own bodies. It’s their Faustian pact to make.

On the second question of whether actors should admit to their PED use… I lean towards keeping quiet.

Yes, keeping quiet will affect people’s mental health by promoting unrealistic body standards, but quite honestly at this point, it’s like throwing a thumb tack into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Admitting to PED use on the other hand, no matter how many caveats you make, is going to be a green light for a lot of people to start juicing. At the moment, the practise still has an aura of the illicit about it. If widely respected figures start endorsing PEDs, they risk directly pushing the practise into the mainstream.

As an actor, you do what you have to do to get work. I get it, don’t hate the player, hate the game.

But if they do get jacked for a role using steroids – they should shut up about how they did it:

• Don’t invite Men’s Health to show off what’s in your fridge.
• Don’t talk about how much protein you had to eat.
• Don’t talk about your workout plan.
• Definitely don’t release an app, or hawk some supplements that purports to reveal the secret behind how you got in such tremendous shape.

Actions like these suggest that the supercharged bodies we see on screen are within reach for everyone, which is an insidious message for people to absorb. The body of Adonis was not built through burpees and chicken breast.