For Ryan Bader, who plays UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman in The Smashing Machine, the smashing part was much more familiar to him than the acting part. Bader, like the man he portrays in the film, is also a real-life fighter. He was a two-time All-American wrestler in college, then went on to enjoy a long and successful career in both UFC and Bellator MMA.

But, prior to being cast in The Smashing Machine, the 42-year-old had never acted before. That meant both learning all the ins and outs of cinema—memorizing lines, hitting his marks, taking directorial notes—and how to make a stunt fight look real. Bader had to take a skill that he’d been perfecting for his entire adult life and essentially figure out how to tone it down, lest he seriously injure anybody on set. Not only that, but he also had to juggle The Smashing Machine’s production schedule and his own training, as Bader is scheduled for a fight New Year’s Eve in Japan, where he’ll compete for the heavyweight title in Rizin, the Japanese mixed martial arts organization.

In discussing his training, diet, and introduction to Hollywood, Bader mentioned a need to simplify and structure everything. Whether that was his gym routine, his meal prep, or his conversations with his A-list costars. Calling in from his home in Arizona, Bader shed some light on the moviemaking process, his days as a state champion on the gridiron, and how long it typically takes him to recover from a cage fight.

GQ: I wanted to ask you about the difference between fighting for a movie scene and fighting in real life. Was it difficult for you to hold back, or to fake a fight?

Ryan Bader: It was definitely different! We got there a couple of weeks before to focus on that, and focus on stunt training. Their big thing is like, “Hey, we’ve trained fighters before, and they won’t take what we’re giving them because they want it to look a certain way.” But I was open to what they had to say. We did two weeks of that, just putting in the reps. How to throw a punch without hurting the other person—hitting them, but [making it] look real.

Were the days when you were shooting fight scenes still pretty physically grueling?

One hundred percent. I remember one fight scene, it was a longer choreographed fight, and I had a big slam in there. I kind of jacked up my knee a little bit. You do it once, you do it over again, you do the different scene, different part. It was actually pretty physically demanding, and we did two back-to-back days of fights. Honestly, I’ve been more banged up with that than a couple of my fights.

Why do you think that is? Just how long shooting takes?

Yeah, I think it’s repetition. We went hard—made it look real, and then we’d cut for a second, we’d get cold, and then we’d do it again. By the fourth or fifth time, your body’s kind of like, what are we doing here?

Did Benny Safdie have any notes for you on your body?

I asked him about that and he goes, “Be exactly how you are right now.” If you look back to Mark Coleman—the character I was playing—when he was fighting, he was a bigger dude and ripped up. I didn’t have to lose weight. I tried to put on five to seven pounds, still be pretty ripped, and looked the part.

Did you have to audition? How did they find you?

Yeah, that’s the funny part. I was fighting and I got a text from Benny, but he didn’t really preface it or anything like that. He was like, “Hey, I have a question about this MMA film.” I honestly kind of blew it off for about a week and a half, plus I was traveling. He texted me again like, “Hey, trying to follow up.” He got in contact with some of my training partners, so then finally I was looking at it, but I didn’t know it was Benny Safdie!

We set up a call, we FaceTime for about 45 minutes and he was like, “Hey, I feel like you’re the one to play Coleman.” We set up an audition a week later on Zoom—first time ever doing that, or even reading a script—and got on a Zoom with Benny. After that I didn’t hear [from him] for, I would probably say two weeks. Then I got a text: “Hey, we’ll see you in Vancouver.” I’m obviously flattered and honored he reached out to me. If I was messing up or whatever, I’m like, “Hey, Benny, you chose me. You know I don’t do this!” But it ended up turning out really well.

What does a normal day in the gym look like for you? I feel like a fighter is much different than someone who’s working out just to stay trim.

It’s my full-time job, and there’s different times when I had business and I was focusing on a lot of different things. I realized I need to cut down and focus on my bread and butter. The one thing I have always done is, I’m consistent. I’m in the gym no matter if I have a fight or not. I feel like that’s kept my body healthy.

In a training camp, I’m doing two to three days of training. That could be a lift and some wrestling, jiu-jitsu, or some boxing. Then I’ll come back for some sparring later. It’s a grind, five days a week doing double days. Then Saturday we’re hitting a run for some cardio. Sunday, day off, kind of recuperate for the next week. We do that for eight weeks straight. In a regular time, like say right now, I’m usually doing double days in the morning and night. Some days I’ll work on technique, but I would probably say on average at least five hours a day in the gym.

Do you know the longest you’ve ever gone without going to the gym?

Yeah, it’s probably only four days. I go crazy. My wife’s like, “Hey, go for a run or something, because you’re getting a little crazier.” My whole life I grew up [playing] football, wrestling in college, right into MMA. That’s my outlet, and kind of my mental health. I got to go out there and push my body. I feel great after it. If I don’t, I get a little wound up.

When you’re hitting weights, what are you normally doing?

I have a trainer—a strength coach—there. He comes in and does my food. We do a lot of functional stuff. As I’ve gotten older, I kind of keep that barbell off my back. I hit some accessories and some sport-specific [stuff]. Probably about three times a week I’m hitting that, and then I’m getting everything else with my grappling, the cage wrestling and all that. It’s a fine line. You don’t want to be too bulky. You don’t want to go in and spend your whole time in the weight room. I’ve gotten injured a few times trying to go heavy, so we dialed that in over the years. I get most of my cardio from there. I like doing that because it replicates a fight.