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Sophie Turner trains 'eight hours a day, five days a week' for intense 'Tomb Raider' role preparation
By Christina Dugan Ramirez
Published January 11, 2026
Sophie Turner is willing to go above and beyond to prepare for a role.
During an appearance on SiriusXM’s "The Julia Cunningham Show," Turner — who is promoting her upcoming thriller series, "Steal" — opened up about the intense training she endured to gear up for her role as Lara Croft in the upcoming "Tomb Raider" film.
After Cunningham asked Turner what her training regimen looked like, the "Game of Thrones" alum made a surprising admission.
Sophie Turner has been training for "eight hours a day, five days a week" since February in preparation for her role as Lara Croft in "Tomb Raider." (Marc Piasecki/WireImage)
"We've been doing eight hours a day, five days a week since February last year of training, so it's been a lot," Turner said.
"What do you think was the most surprising thing that you've learned about your body when doing that?" Cunningham asked.
"I've learned I have a perpetual back problem, but I also realized that it's much easier to kind of build muscle if you've ever worked out before in your life, which I never had, so it has taken me months and months and months to get into good shape," Turner admitted. "That's what I've learned."
The "Game of Thrones" alum admitted to never working out before the intense training. ( XNY/Star Max/GC Images)
When Cunningham asked if her "GoT" role helped at all, Turner said, "No, I was the cool queen who, like, didn't have to do that. I also just kind of was the one that got beat up, not the one doing the beating. So, it's quite nice to learn how to throw a punch and not just take it."
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Turner isn't the only celebrity to undergo an intense transformation for a role.
Matt Damon recently revealed how he slimmed down to his "high school" weight to play legendary Greek hero Odysseus in his highly anticipated movie "The Odyssey."
During an appearance on Travis and Jason Kelce's podcast, "New Heights," Damon — who reunited with director Christopher Nolan for the upcoming action-fantasy film, which is an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem "The Odyssey" — discussed how he achieved his body transformation after the retired Philadelphia Eagles player noted that the "Good Will Hunting" star was "getting pretty yoked up" in viral photos from the movie's set.
Matt Damon recently opened up about his physical transformation for a movie role. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
"Yeah, I was in really good shape," Damon said. "I lost a lot of weight."… [Christopher] said he wanted me to be lean but strong," Damon said. "It's a weird thing."
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Damon went on to say that he made a key change to his diet that helped him shed the pounds.
"I literally, just because of this other thing I did with my doctor, stopped eating gluten," he said. "I used to walk around between 185 and 200 pounds. And I did that whole movie at 167 pounds. I haven’t been that light since high school. So it was a lot of training and a really strict diet."
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Fox News Digital's Ashley Hume contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/sophie-turner-trains-8-hours-day-five-days-week-intense-tomb-raider-role-preparation