Jesse Metcalfe Just Revealed That He Wasn’t Eating And Spent All Of His Free Time Working Out During Filming For “John Tucker Must Die”

The original film is about a serial cheating jock called John Tucker, played by Jesse Metcalfe, whose multiple girlfriends devise a vengeful plan to break his heart. 

The movie also stars Arielle Kebbel, Sophia Bush, Brittany Snow, the singer Ashanti, and You star Penn Badgley — with Arielle, Jesse, and Sophia teasing the sequel during a panel at Epic Cons Chicago on Sunday.

The trio reunited 18 years after the comedy’s release, and Jesse excited the crowd by telling them that he’d heard “there is a script” for a sequel.

Arielle then confirmed what Jesse had said, revealing that she is also on board as a producer for the sequel, which involves “all of the OG cast.”

She said: “The rumor is true! I started producing a few years ago. There is a script. We are very proud of it. It does involve all of the OG cast."

But elsewhere in the same panel, Jesse reflected on the extreme lengths that he went to when preparing for the role of John Tucker while in his late 20s. 

Jesse reiterated that he was in the gym any time he wasn’t required on set during the shoot, and that the grueling role involved “working out and eating salmon every night.”

“I was taking it pretty darn seriously,” he added.

As Sophia and Arielle confirmed that the movie was “rough in terms of body image” for everyone on set, Jesse admitted that he “had a lot of anxiety” about taking on the lead role and that “it was a lot of pressure.”

And Jesse is far from the only male star to have opened up about how intense preparing for a movie can be. 

If you didn’t know, the franchise follows Channing’s character, Mike Lane, a stripper loosely inspired by Channing’s experiences as a performer before he got his big break in Hollywood.

The movies are known for their scenes of half-naked — and sometimes fully nude — male actors who show off their muscles with sexy dance routines. 

But in 2022, Channing admitted that the dread of getting his Mike physique back was almost enough for him to turn down the third movie, which was released last year.

During Channing’s appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Kelly swooned over a blown-up photo of the star in character as Mike, saying: “If I worked out and looked like that I’d put [the picture] up everywhere!”

“Trust me, that might be the reason why I didn’t want to do a third one — because I’d have to look like that,” Channing said in response.

Kelly then said that Channing has to eat “so well” on the diet, and Channing could barely hide his bemusement as he explained that the Magic Mike diet is far from optimal.

“‘Well?’ That’s not even healthy,” he said. “You have to starve yourself. I don’t think when you’re that lean it’s actually healthy for you.”

Highlighting just how strict his diet plan is, Channing later added: “The thing I miss most probably is salt… When you get really close to the day when you’ve got to be butt naked on screen, everything just tastes like water.”