19 Amazing Bodies of American Horror Story Stars

The dead are alive! Here we delve into the fitness and lifestyle secrets of the beloved cast from the iconic show. From Andrew Lincoln's stamina-focused training for his role as Rick Grimes to Norman Reedus's relaxed approach for Darryl Dixon, each star brings a unique perspective to maintaining their health under the demanding conditions of filming. Lauren Cohan champions exercise variety, while Danai Gurira emphasizes wellbeing through varied workouts. Jeffery Dean Morgan finds fitness in farm life, and Melissa McBride reflects on the show's impact.

1. Andrew Lincoln

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Andrew Lincoln played Rick Grimes on the show. In a 2012 interview with Men’s Health, he shared his approach for training for the series. Lincoln revealed that stamina is the main thing he values. "Of course, I want to be in good shape and be fit, but I want to have stamina. It's not an exercise in vanity. It's about being able to do stuff.”

2. Norman Reedus

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Norman Reedus plays fan-favorite character Darryl Dixon, which lead to him getting a spin-off. He shared his fitness secrets with Men’s Journal. “I have a trainer in New York I use every so often when I’m getting ready to go back on the show. Nothing too specific. I just try to shed any holiday pounds and get my mind right. When I’m down there [in Atlanta], I have a gym in my house, so I try to work out when I can, but sometimes when you work so many hours all you can do is get home and fall on your face. I’m also running through the woods in 103° heat and my crossbow weighs a ton, and I’m always riding bikes and building things, so the pounds melt off.”

3. Lauren Cohan

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Lauren Cohan played Maggie Greene on the show. She shared her fitness routine with Shape Magazine. "I am the queen of exercise variety. This week I was in L.A. and I took a Pure Barre class, went to Burn 60 [an interval workout class] twice, ran the track at UCLA, made it to the gym, and took a yoga class. I also really love to dance. I dance through workouts that aren't even about dancing! At home, all my furniture is pushed to the edges of my living room so that I can dance around the room.”

4. Danai Gurira

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Danai Gurira played the fan-favorite character, Michonne, on the show. She shared her approach to fitness with Women’s Health. “If I haven’t worked out, if I haven’t exercised and connected with my body in some way, it chips away at my feeling of well-being,” she says. “It might be lifting weights, it might be boxing, it might be something a little less intense. There’s no need to break records tomorrow. It’s just about slowly finding what feels good and what feels rewarding.”

5. Jeffery Dean Morgan

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Jeffery Dean Morgan played the villainous Negan on the show. He and his wife, Hilarie Burton, live on a farm. Morgan tells Men’s Journal that he likes to chop wood. “I’m a little bit obsessed with it. I love an ax, but I recently got a log splitter, which has changed my life as I near 55.”

6. Melissa McBride

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Melissa McBride plays Carol Peletier on the show. She talked about the impact the show has had to AMC.com. “I think being a part of something that sort of just took over, it still has not quite settled in my mind. I understand how big the show is. I experienced how big it got and that's maybe why it's hard to fathom that I’m a part of it. It's bigger and more unexpected than I ever could have imagined, and I still have not quite grasped that I am indeed a part of this massive thing. I think one of these days, maybe even years from now, I will look back with a different perspective. You know, see the whole of it.”

7. Jon Bernthal

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Jon Bernthal plays Shane Walsh on the show. He also stars on The Punisher and shared his workout secrets for the show with Men’s Journal. “Today we got up at 4 in the morning. Usually we’ll start with a little strength work, whether it is taking on squats or the bench press, doing five sets of three at the maximum weight. There’s a lot of supersetting, and bodybuilding weight practices. Then we work on a lot of MetCon [metabolic conditioning], doing as many rounds as we can, trying to get each movement just right. It will usually be about five or six full-body moves, like pull-ups or cleans. We’ll do that for somewhere around 20 minutes or so. Then in the afternoon we’ll do boxing or jiu jitsu workouts between scenes. I always want to box, but they really try to keep me working my whole body as much as possible. On top of that, learning the fights for the show or weapons training is almost a whole other workout on top of that. So it probably works out to three separate big, different workouts a day. It’s pretty gnarly.”

8. Christian Serratos

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Christian Serratos plays Rosita Espinosa on the show. She shared some of her skincare secrets with The Cut. “I started double-cleansing probably around the time my daughter was born, because I noticed that when I would wipe my face dry on a towel after cleansing, I still had makeup around my hairline or the edges of my face. And I was mostly annoyed with the fact that the makeup was getting on my towels.”

9. Michael Rooker

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In addition to playing Merle Dixon on The Walking Dead, Michael Rooker also plays Yondu in the Guardians of The Galaxy franchise. He talked about doing his own stunts with Smashing Interviews. “I didn’t do a lot of major action stuff in this one. I like doing physical stuff, but this was easy enough for me. I really didn’t have many major fights. Yondu is just … you don’t want to mess with this cat. His weapon of choice is pretty powerful, so you don’t want to screw around with the guy. He’s a tough old boy.”

10. Alanna Masterson

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Alanna Masterson plays Tara Chambler on the show. After having her daughter, Masterson was subjected to body-shaming. However, she hit back on Instagram. “Dear Instagram trolls, body shamers, and the men and woman who think it's ok to comment on my weight: I hope that you don't have children. And if you do, I hope you teach them about kindness and acceptance. I hope they learn that it isn't ok to make fun of people or call people names.”

11. Khary Payton

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Khary Payton played Ezekiel on the show. He shared how he stayed in shape on the show to Muscle and Fitness. “We film in Atlanta where it’s hot and humid, and I lose weight if I’m not doing something. So I have this CrossFit-style regimen that’s just 20 minutes. I do five pullups, 10 pushups, and 15 body-weight squats. I do as many rounds as I can in 20 minutes. By the time I get halfway through, I’ve got to cheat on the pullups. By the time I’m done, I’m in a pool of sweat on the floor. My best is nine rounds.”

12. Austin Amelio

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Austin Amelio played Dwight on the show. In an interview, he revealed that he has adopted a vegan diet. “I watched that documentary ‘What the Health’ ten days ago, and the next day I was like, ‘I’m done.’ It’s been 10 days, completely vegan the whole entire time, and I feel better than I felt like in years.”

13. Tom Payne

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Tom Payne, who played Jesus, works with trainer Tom Fitzgerald on his diet and exercise. Fitzgerald told The Hollywood Reporter that Payne eats a lot of protein. “Most people would need a period of ‘cutting in’ after a program like this,” Fitzgerald explains. “However, Tom has such a fast metabolism that just keeping up the calories is the main challenge; losing fat in order to show muscular definition happens almost automatically.”

14. Lauren Ridloff

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Lauren Ridloff played Connie on the show. She revealed to Shape that she is training to run the New York City Marathon, and shared her reasons for doing so. "It was more about meditation," she says. "It was about reentering myself and problem solving, troubleshooting, all of those things...You know, my mind just wanders [when I run]. I never know where it's gonna go, which is quite nice."

15. Steven Yuen

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Steven Yuen played fan-favorite character, Glenn Rhee. He told The Guardian that he wants to represent the Asian community through his work. “Where I try and speak from as an actor is always feeling, I guess, isolated. I warred with that for a lot of my life – of feeling disconnected from a system, a majority, or a group. I deeply wanted to connect, so I would bend and twist and break myself to try and conform.”

1. Michiel Huisman

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Michel Huisman played the older Steven Crain. He shared his fitness secrets in an interview with InStyle. "I work out on playgrounds at 6 in the morning," he says. "I did work with a trainer for a long time but not anymore. I don't have time for it, so I just do it wherever I can. Body weight."

2. Carla Gugino

Carla Gugino played Olivia Crain. She shared her go-to exercises in an interview with Coveteur. “I’ve been doing yoga since I was 13. It’s great because I can do it in a hotel room anywhere I am. I’m really into Barre3 in the West Village, it’s such a kick-ass class. If I’m in New York I'm doing Barre3 and SoulCycle. If I’m in L.A., I’m hiking and swimming.”

3. Henry Thomas

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Henry Thomas played the younger Hugh Crain. He has been acting since he was young, and talked about having to cut off his mother from managing his career to The DailyMail. “I felt a bit of pressure to not fully invest myself in that world and to stay grounded in home life. Then my mum became critical, so when I was getting supporting roles she would say ‘I don’t know why you’re not on the poster. Talk to your people. It was conflicting. But by the time I was 17 I had frozen them out and I said: ‘I’m going to do it and I don’t need your help and you’re just holding me back.’”

4. Oliver Jackson-Cohen

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Oliver Jackson-Cohen played older Luke Crain. He shared his skincare routine in an interview with GQ. “I try to keep my skincare as simple as possible,” he said. “I don’t wash my face with anything apart from water. In the winter, once out of the shower, I will occasionally spray Valmont Hydrating Fluid if it's particularly dry, followed by Ceramiracle First Light Serum. It’s very hydrating so I don’t always need a moisturiser. If I do, Crème De La Mer moisturising cream has been a long staple and is excellent.”

5. Kate Siegel

Kate Siegel played the older Theo Crain on the show. She shared her secrets for staying calm on sets with Collider. “Anything that puts me more in my head separates me from the moment-to-moment reality of acting, so any kind of meditation or things like that puts me more into my head. And so the things I like to do are kind of two-fold. One is, that part of my brain that's always kind of fumbling with the Rubik's Cube of the scene, I think is beneficial. I love her. I used to hate her, but now I love her, and so what I'll do is I'll give her something arbitrary to think about."

6. Victoria Pedretti

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Victoria Pedretti played the older Nell Crain Vance on the show. She shared her favorite self-care rituals with Byrdie. “I do yoga, for sure. I'm not necessarily working to gain a tremendous amount of muscle. I do yoga because I want to have access to my body for a long time. I've also been working on doing different forms of facial massage because I use my face a lot in my work. Doing these habits has a large effect on my mental health. I think working on our minds without working on our bodies is only doing half the work.”

7. Annabeth Gish

Annabeth Gish played Clara Dudley on the show. She revealed to Sportify It that she does a lot of at-home workouts. “My Peleton changed my world. I don’t have to park. I can make dinner and workout while it’s cooking. I can workout whenever I want. We can parent and workout in our home. Even with that, I do yoga. I hike. We take our dogs for a work all the time. I workout 4-5 days a week, not every day. Having the time to workout is a luxury, but we also make it a priority.”

In the gripping world of Criminal Minds, these beloved actors brought complex characters to life while maintaining their own unique lifestyles and routines. From dedicated runners to champions of self-acceptance, let's explore the fascinating bodies and minds of some of the show's stars. Discover AJ Cook's newfound love for running, Paget Brewster's embrace of natural beauty, Shemar Moore's diet wisdom, and more intriguing insights into the lives of the talented actors who brought Criminal Minds to life. Explore their fitness routines, self-care practices, and personal philosophies that contribute to their amazing bodies and resilient minds.

1. AJ Cook

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AJ Cook played Jennifer Jareau on the show. She loves to run, and talked about this to Women’s Running. “I’ve run all my life really, but just because it was a good way to get cardio in. I never enjoyed it. Just in the last year or so, I’ve come to love how I feel when I run. It’s that time where I just get to escape from everything—no phone, no computer, I’m not working, I just shut that side of my brain off and let the other side of my brain open up.”

2. Paget Brewster

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Paget Brewster played Emily Prentiss. On Twitter, she opened up about her decision to not dye her hair. "I have felt pressure to dye it, pretend to be 35 again, no thanks," she wrote. "We all have huge issues to address, I know. This is one small battle. But I think all of us have small personal battles. Let’s start by being kind to each other, even when we disagree. Please."

3. Shemar Moore

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Shemar Moore played Derek Morgan on the show. He talked about his approach to diet and exercise to Men’s Health. "Don't get it twisted, whatever you do in the gym—I don't care how far you run or how heavy you lift—getting lean and mean starts in the kitchen with your diet," says Moore. "If you're diet ain't right, you're going to drive yourself crazy in the gym. You might get a little stronger, but you're not going to get prettier.”

4. Rachel Nichols

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Rachel Nichols played Ashley Seaver on the show. In an interview with Smashing Interviews, she talked about the importance of having quality time with her husband. “It’s been crucial and non-negotiable that we spent a lot of time together since we live together and weren’t allowed to go anywhere. But I’m pretty easy. I love to go home to Maine to see my family. I’m actually leaving to go to Maine in the middle of November. I haven’t been home in two years. It’s the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing my parents. So I’d maintain that travel is my favorite thing to do on my down time.”

5. Joe Mantegna

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Joe Mantegna played David Rossi on the show. He talked about his workout secrets with Parade. “For the last 23 years, I’ve lived in a two-story house, and so I often run up the stairs—an opportunity. I spend a good portion of the day going up and down. If I’m in a building that’s three stories, I walk up the stairs. If I’m traveling—and there’s somewhere I can walk—I’ll do that or take a bicycle. I used to go to the gym, but don’t feel the need now. I felt I spent too much time chatting with other people about what we do for a living.”

6. Kirsten Vangsness

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Kirsten Vangsness played Penelope Garcia on the show. She talked about how she approached the reboot to Parade. “I'm not writing an episode because gosh, I love acting. Writing is fun for me, and I find it really pleasurable, but it’s hard for me to do for Criminal Minds because I’m not as good at it as everybody else. I was taking acting classes for six months before I got back here and I was very excited to be like, I want to do this better than I did before. I want to try things and be more.”

7. Aisha Tyler

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Aisha Tyler played Tara Lewis on the show. She described her diet to People as a modified paleo diet. “This means that for the most part, I avoid refined carbohydrates, grains, dairy and sugar. That said, I’m not super strict. I try to be as disciplined as I can during the week so that I can eat what I want on the weekends, which includes pasta, bread and other fun stuff.”

8. Jennifer Love Hewitt

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Jennifer Love Hewitt played Kate Callahan on the show. She tells Hello! Magazine that she loves Palmer’s products. “Palmers is classic. I knew about it before pregnancy. But once I was pregnant I used it, it worked and I loved it. The massage cream for stretch marks and the skin therapy oil. Yes, those are the two Palmers products I've used. I've used it twice a day-morning and night.”

Discover the secrets behind the enviable physiques of our favorite Netflix stars. From the Henry Cavill's grueling pre-workout routine to the effortless beauty of a renowned actress, these celebrities prove that staying fit and healthy requires dedication and a well-balanced lifestyle. Join us as we delve into the wellness regimens and diets of stars like Chris Hemsworth, Ruby Rose, and more. With exclusive insights from interviews and behind-the-scenes revelations, we present the ultimate guide to the hot bodies of Netflix stars. Prepare to be inspired by their fitness journeys and perhaps find your own motivation along the way. Read on to see how they maintain their stunning physiques and the stunning photos that prove their hard work pays off.

1. Henry Cavill

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Henry Cavill shared some of his wellness secrets with GQ. He says that he likes to take a lot of workout supplements, and shared his favorites. “I feel like grass-fed whey protein is too much of an easy answer because that's my diet basically. That's an absolute necessity. I can't travel without it. But moving on from that, actually it’s the Shatter Elite pre-workout. That stuff is really good. I’m working silly hard most of the time, getting up at the crack of dawn or way before dawn and then working all the way through it. Especially when you're really, really tired, it does give you a really good pick up and kick up the ass to get into the gym.”

2. Chris Hemsworth

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In an interview with GQ, Chris Hemsworth talked about what it’s like starring in Marvel projects, and how he deals with criticism of those projects. “I don’t love when we start scrutinising each other when there’s so much fragility in the business and in this space of the arts as it is… I say that less to the directors who made those comments, who are all, by the way, still my heroes, and in a heartbeat I would leap to work with any of them. But I say it more to the broader opinion around that topic.”

3. Ruby Rose

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Ruby Rose is open about being a vegan, and talked about her diet in an interview. “When I’m exhausted and have a full day and just want a hamburger, I’ll just make an Impossible burger or Beyond Meat. I don’t love meat, but it’s the idea of a hamburger. It’s a form of junk food I want and need, but it’s still good for me. Fries and a burger.”

4. Jason Momoa

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Jason Momoa works with trainer, Damien Viera, to help him stay in shape. Viera opened up about their process in an interview with Men’s Journal. “We're looking at movements in scripts that are a year out. It’s very bespoke. There’s no fat in what we do, it’s all a line in Jason’s performance. In broad strokes, everything we do is good for exactly what he's doing.”

5. Gal Gadot

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Gal Gadot makes sure she eats a healthy diet. She opened up about this in an interview with Good Housekeeping. “I try to eat healthy yet balanced. I don't like to deprive myself of anything. I believe in balance in everything, by the way. I love to cook, and I’ve always been a foodie…Since I’m from the Middle East, I’m very much all about the Mediterranean diet. I look at food as fuel, and I want to give the best to my body so I try to eat healthy on most days."

6. Taylor Schilling

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Taylor Schilling is a big fan of journaling. She opened up about this in an interview with Vogue. "If I wake up and write out whatever is clogging up my thinking—fears, worries, whatever it is—that by the time I’m done writing, I’m a little more focused on what I want to have happen."

7. Dacre Montgomery

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In an interview with Men’s Health, Dacre Montgomery revealed how he got in shape for his role in Stranger Things. “I wanted to do this meatier, chunkier jock thing so I still worked out a ton, but I also did a lot of boxing and ate heaps. My carb intake was higher, my meat intake was higher and I just built this chunkier, more muscly version of myself.”

8. Laura Prepon

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In 2016, Laura Prepon gave an interview to People to promote her book The Stash Plan. “When I got to my early twenties, I started having issues with my digestion,” Prepon said. “I was gaining weight just when I didn’t need to be, and my energy levels started to plummet. Not to mention I was bloated and puffy most days. I had just started working on That ’70s Show and was very worried, so I became obsessed with reading diet and health books, looking for answers. I have stacks of them in my house!”

9. David Harbour

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David Harbour’s trainer, David Higgins, talked about how the actor stays in shape in an interview with GQ. “We implemented a 24 hour fast from Sunday evening to Monday night for four weeks. David really got into it. I think the longest fast he did was 48 hours a few times, just to see how it would go.”

10. Alison Brie

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Alison Brie opened up about her process of getting in shape for GLOWin an interview. “A lot of women, especially in my profession, feel like they have to starve themselves to lose weight. I’ve certainly felt that way in the past. But while training for the show, I was eating more than ever and I’ve never felt better.”

11. Anya Taylor-Joy

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Anya Taylor-Joy talked about how she balances her busy schedule in an interview with Tatler. “I don’t have time to be a 25-year-old with a hangover. But I’m not someone who needs a drink to dance. Basically I’ve become very efficient at everything. I’m like ‘What do I need out of this situation?’ I need to dance for a couple of hours, see my friends and have a good time’, so I’m like ‘Right, let’s bang it out.’ Then it’s: go home, have a bath, get up for work. I sound mental, but that’s what’s working for me right now.”

12. Ross Butler

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Ross Butler opened up about his workout routine in an Instagram post from 2018. He captioned it, “7 weeks into this workout and diet regiment! Body did a total 180, so insane. @thomasdelauer is a wizard. #workoutwednesday.”

13. Emma Mackey

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Emma Mackey talked about working on Sex Education in an interview with whimn.com. “Work-wise, it’s given us more of a leg up in terms of working with interesting scripts and getting to do some good work, which is what we want to do at the end of the day. It’s a really nice position to be in, but yeah. It’s kind of mad. But I’m grateful for it, and I’m just taking it step by step, you know?”

14. Naomi Watts

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Naomi Watts shared some of her favorite workouts in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. "I try to work out as often as I can, but I'm not fanatical about fitness,” she said. “My back carries most of my tension and if I'm stressed I can't do high-impact exercise, so yoga and Pilates tend to work better for me."

15. Penn Badgely

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In an interview with GQ, Penn Badgely opened up about his career. He says that having valuable relationships is crucial. “Every relationship you have – every single one, down to your parents, your children, and everybody outside of that – it influences every single relationship in ways that are always unpredictable and a bit tricky. And then everywhere you go, that happens.”

16. Tom Ellis

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In order to play the title character in Lucifer, Tom Ellis worked with Paolo Mascitti. “Tom didn’t really do pullups as part of his sessions before we started working together,” Mascitti told Men’s Journal. “Now he loves them, and likes to push himself as far as how many more he can do every time. That's just an example of the ways he's really taken to the challenge.”

17. Laverne Cox

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Laverne Cox has amazing skin, and she shared some of her favorite products and tips with Allure. “Olay Regenerist has an eye depuffer — I love their eye creams. There's an eye roller from L'Oréal [that's also] a depuffer. So it's those things from the drugstore. I also love that the press-on [nails] are getting so good. The Kiss press-ons you can get, you glue them on — they're so good. When I'm in a pinch, I love going to the drugstore for them.”

18. Katherine Langford

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In this Instagram post, Katherine Langford spoke out about climate change. She captioned the post, “The difference between 1.5C, 2C or 3-4C average global warming can sound marginal. In fact, they represent vastly different scenarios for the future of humanity. The frequency of disasters, the survival of plants and animals, the spread of diseases, the stability of our global climate system and - ultimately - the possibility for humanity to survive on this planet hinge on these few degrees.”

19. Omar Sy

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In an interview with The Guardian, Omar Sy talked about his parents and how proud and close he is to them. “I think it builds your relationship with your parents when you have to explain to people who they are and what they do for a living. It makes you think about who they are beneath the jobs. It connects you to them. I remember having to explain what my mum did when I was Tidiane’s age. When I told people she was a cleaner… Well, I went through different stages with that. For a long time I was ashamed. Then, growing up, explaining it over and over, something changed. Talking about my mum and her life made me feel more connected to her. Expressing stuff helped me to realise things. And I was so proud of her.”

20. Charlize Theron

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In an interview with Red Online, Charlize Theron talked about how she was raised, and what she wants to instill in her children. “I was very lucky to be raised by a single parent who wanted that for me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without that kind of a backbone. I learnt that from a very young age…Look, nothing bad comes from telling your children to pick themselves up and use the things that happen to them as lessons, rather than things that will define then. I don’t want anything to ever define my children.”