BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — For Michael Ealy, “About Last Night” was both a big break and nearly his undoing.
“When this film came up, the studio wanted me to look 28,” said Ealy, 40, who had to be often shirtless and occasionally nude in this contemporary look at sex, dating and relationships.
“I personally feel like I do look 28 — I never have seen anyone who told me I looked over 35. So OK, I had three months.”
For Ealy, who co-stars in TV’s “Almost Human” as a dreamy android, “About Last Night” marks his first leading role in a film. The movie, which also stars red-hot Kevin Hart, is expected to be a box-office giant.
Ealy quickly committed to “a heavy dose of Olympic power lifting and a strict diet. The weight lifting was easy. The diet — no sugar, no salt, no carbs, way too much breast of chicken with no seasoning — that was the hardest.”
Once filming began and Ealy was 25 pounds lighter, it was obvious he had gone too far.
“It got so bad (director) Steve Pink called and said, ‘It’s OK, your discipline is appreciated but we need you to eat because you’re beginning to look a little gaunt. Eat a pizza.’
“I hadn’t been that small since high school. My wife (Khatira Rafiqzada) thought like the studio did, I lost a little too much.”
This “About Last Night” is more of an update than a remake of the 1986 Demi Moore/Rob Lowe hit, Ealy acknowledged at the Beverly Hilton hotel. “This is a more in-depth look at relationships, at what makes them work or tears them apart.
“It’s not the highly romanticized version that happens only in the movies. It’s raunchy, it’s vulgar, it’s more real.
“That is what relationships can be, and I think people will see this and say, ‘That’s how it is.’
“By not being afraid of the nudity or the language we made it more authentic — and we don’t see anything here that only happens in the movies.
“It’s like when I saw ‘Bridesmaids.’ Wow! They’re just talking like that and not worrying about it being safe for little kids to see it.
“We put it out there, and whoever sees it, sees it. The raunchy part of it definitely makes it different from the other romantic comedies I’ve done.”
(“About Last Night” opens Friday.)
