“Is this AI?” Chelsea Handler commented on the photos, before Cohen himself trolled his “mid-life crisis” makeover — while joking, “Some celebs use Ozempic, some use private chefs, others use personal trainers. I did all three.”
Sacha Baron Cohen shocked his followers on Wednesday, as he debuted his new — and very shirtless — Men’s Fitness UK cover with the world (embedded below).
The cover image and additional workout photos from inside the new issue were shared to social media, as he opened up about getting in shape for his role as Mephisto in Marvel’s Ironheart series on Disney+.
The carousel of images racked up a ton of likes, as celebrity followers including Chelsea Handler and Gal Gadot jumped into the comments. Handler asked, “Is this AI?” before Gadot left a simple fire emoji.
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Around the same time Handler asked, Cohen took to his Instagram Stories to troll himself over some of the photos. Sharing the cover in one Story, he wrote, “This is not AI, I really am egotistical enough to do this.”
“Some celebs use Ozempic, some use private chefs, others use personal trainers. I did all three,” he commented over a photo of his back muscles.
“Hard launching my mid-life crisis,” Cohen wrote over another photo, in which he showed off his impressive arms alongside a quote reading, “I now believe that just 20 to 30 minutes of movement a day can make a real difference — and it’s something anyone can fit into their routine, especially celebrities with personal assistants to do all the boring stuff like shopping and attending friends’ funerals.”
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He went on to caption other photos with comments like, “Debuting my new character: Middle aged man who replaced beer with protein shakes” and “This is AI … NOT!” — before tagging Marvel Studios and adding the hashtag, #ShirtlessMephisto.
He also thanked his trainer for “doing the unthinkable — putting up with me for 25 mins a day.”
Per Deadline, which got an exclusive first look at the accompanying profile for the cover, Cohen got buff after asking Matthew McConaughey for help finding a trainer who could transform his body quickly.
“He looked like a ruler, straight up and down,” trainer Alfonsi Moretti said of seeing Cohen in his underwear for the firs time. The actor, meanwhile, described himself as “having the core strength of an arthritic jellyfish” before he started seriously working out.
The training was clearly a success — as Deadline notes he had to have his Mephisto costume altered a couple times due to his changing physique. Cohen added he’s now in the best shape of his life — this coming after he and Isla Fisher announced in April 2024 they had separated in 2023. Just last month, they finalized their divorce.
