The Real-Life Diet of Actor Tom Francis, Who Does ‘Wild Stuff’ With Resistance Bands

A starring role in a Broadway production makes for grueling hours. Night after night, Tom Francis and his Sunset Boulevard castmates dance their way through the musical’s two and a half hours, and twice a week they do two shows in a day. How does the British actor do it? With a steady diet of beef and tinned fish, mostly.

A former field hockey whiz, Francis has the athletic background—and now, a personal trainer—that helps him withstand the physical demands of his job. Recently, though, he shifted from stage to screen, playing Clayton in the fifth and final season of the Netflix hit You, which drops today. Between his Broadway and television duties, the 25-year-old is still somehow finding time to hit the gym and whip up his favorite nostalgia-inducing dishes in the kitchen. In February, Francis took time out of his insanely busy schedule to talk through his pre-show routine, his stance on late dinners, and the sheer magnitude of American portions.

Tom Francis: I think it is pretty imperative. I've definitely gone through phases where I've felt like I've not looked after myself as much, and it definitely does influence your work. We are athletes in a weird way. It's an intense two-and-a-half, three hours that everyone spends on stage every night. You've got to be sharp for it, and you've got to feel fueled for it.

When I feel like I don't look after myself—like maybe I had a really busy day, and I didn't eat enough—then when I'm just about to go on stage, I'm like, "Oh, my God. I am about to go and do two-and-a-half hours. Got to really concentrate, and I'm hungry." When I'm really hungry, I don't know, I get a bit jittery.

Oh, yeah. This is one thing that I was actually quite interested to talk to you about. The two-show days, everyone kind of hates them for that reason. It's such a tricky balance of eating enough but not eating so much that you're feeling heavy on stage, and you can do your job, you're not lethargic, not in a food coma. But you eat too much food, and you're just a bit sleepy.

Yeah, I'm the same. A big thing for me with weight loss and stuff, trying to take pounds off and body fat, is eating late. Always, if I weigh myself [in the morning] after eating at 10:00 pm versus weighing myself in the morning when I'd eaten, say, between 6:00 and 8:00, I've always dropped a load of kilograms or pounds or whatever. After a show, it's like 10:00, 11:00, sometimes you just exerted a load of energy on stage, and it's hard not to eat stuff after the show. But I try not to do that, because I do feel like it's harder to stay in shape if you eat that late.

I think my least favorite part of fitness is getting [to my session]. Once I'm there, I have such a good time, and I always feel so much better afterwards. My trainer is absolutely incredible, and once I get there with him and I'm doing my stuff, I love it. But waking up like, I'm feeling tired today, and then getting to the gym—that's my least favorite part of fitness. Just the literal journey from my house to the gym.

I don't know about you, but I go through phases for two, three weeks where I'm like, "Yup, I'm going." And then I have a week where I'm like, "I can't do this anymore." It’s so hard.

Yeah, when I was a kid I played a lot of field hockey. I used to play for my county back home. I played for Suffolk. I used to play two or three times a week, and I absolutely loved it. But then it came to a point where I was kind of moving off to go to drama school and stuff, and it was just a big commitment that I couldn't really hold. I couldn't really do them both at the same time. Also, my drama school was like, "What if you get hit in the face with a hockey ball and you don’t have any teeth?" I was like, "Ah, yeah. That might affect how I sing." So, I had to stop playing.

But I also grew up on farms, so I was always outside doing loads of manual labor activities with my family. That was really fun. Then when I was at drama school for musical theater I did a ridiculous amount of dance every single week. It was so intense. I did it for three years, and I'm still pretty terrible at dancing. But three years of ballet training is no joke. What the Royal Ballet do, for example, they are absolutely, incredibly fit. The way that your legs feel when you're doing certain movements, it is absolutely excruciating if you're not doing it correctly.

My girlfriend's Argentinian, and she kind of introduced me to steak. It just fills you up in such a good way. I don't feel heavy, but I feel like I've got a load of energy after it. That's kind of the perfect meal for me. If it's a two-show day, before the first show I try and have two tins of tuna and then different kinds of vegetables, like asparagus or sweet potatoes—stuff that kind of fills you up and slow releases a little bit of energy, but it doesn't make you feel too groggy.

It’s very good.

I definitely do that. That's the tuna and steak thing. I've eaten that every day for the last month, which probably isn't great. I probably need to switch it up, but I'm just so obsessed with the taste of it. I went and got this hot honey, which I put on top. I can't remember the brand, but it is absolutely delicious. The combination of all of that together—chef's kiss.

My favorite thing to cook is a chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto, stuffed with Boursin—a really soft, garlicky cheese that melts inside. I do roast potatoes and vegetables with it, and it reminds me of home, because my mom used to cook it a lot as a kid.

You know what I quite like—which isn't a big thing back home—everything has how many calories a portion size is. I was talking to my fellow castmate about this, he's Welsh, and we were talking about how it's really useful. You pick [something] up, and you're like, "Oh, yeah. I could do that." I quite like that.

The thing that's also kind of crazy is just how big everything is. Can't get over it. I look at a breast of chicken here, and I'm like, "How big was that chicken when it was alive?" It looks so massive compared to the breasts of chicken that you get back home.

I try to train about five or six times a week. I've got a personal trainer called Naqam Washington who is an incredible personal trainer. He does a lot of the Marvel guys, he used to do the Knicks, and he's just an unreal trainer because he does the functional stuff. He doesn't believe in splits—chest and tris or back and bis, all of that stuff. He doesn't believe in that. He does really train you as an athlete, and so every single day is a full body workout.

He does really wild stuff with resistance bands. It's using different parts of your muscles to stabilize everything. He calls them chaos sets. Every single time you turn up, you always come away feeling really engaged in every way, which is perfect for my job. I need to feel engaged.

I try to go to Bathhouse at least once a week. It just really relaxes my body at the end of a week. That's where I get my cold plunges and my saunas in. Every single time I finish a gym session, I always go to the steam room. I'm a singer as well, so it's like a nice way to clear everything out and feel good after a workout. I go and sit in the steam room for 10 minutes, and then I'll go and have a cold shower for two minutes, I go and get back in the steam room for 10 minutes, then I go and have my shower.

I've tried to have them coexist, and it doesn't work for me. I've moved on to 0% beers, which are great if you're training as well, because it means that you can kind of get your fix of, "Oh, I want a beer." It tastes like a beer, and some of them also still give you a little bit of a buzz, but it has 60 calories instead of 250, and you don't wake up the next day feeling lethargic and anxious and tired and everything that you feel once you've had a few beers. So yeah, I've definitely decided to steer clear of alcohol for the time being.

I don’t count calories or anything, but I downloaded this app called Noom. That's just made me a bit obsessed with green calories, so I want lots of them in my body, but I don't want the orange calories in my body as much. It's weird. Instead of craving a doughnut or something, I've started having roasted almonds. They really fill me up and they taste great, but they're just a bit better for you than a doughnut.

I don't tend to meditate. I quite like a yoga class every now and then. I feel like that kind of resets me, because it's hard, and it's nice to focus on something that feels good for your body. I think that's probably the closest thing. I've tried the meditation thing. I've just never been able to make it a habit. My director for the show that I'm in is a Buddhist, so I feel like I should talk to him about it, because I think he's got it on lock.

No, I've never really experienced that. I think, for example, if you're Daniel Craig and James Bond, obviously, he has a load of topless scenes, and there's an aesthetic of that character. Or for example, anyone in Marvel who's supposed to be Superman or something like that. There's obviously an aesthetic for that thing. It wouldn't be so much like a director telling you to do it, but more of a, "We're going to get you on a strict training program. We're going to get the right food in you." That's when you become a little bit more dialed-in. But right now, yeah, my director's pretty chill.

Francis won the 2024 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

Yes. It was the first time I was ever on a TV set, which was wild to get as a first job in TV. It was the most heartwarming experience I've had in my professional career. Everyone was just so willing to guide me through and teach me things. Penn Badgley as a number one was just absolutely fantastic. He was so inspiring every day, and it really trickled down into every department because he was so great. I had the best time ever.

Crafty, yeah. That's brilliant. I'm a big fan of that, big fan of that. They had the most unbelievable peanut butter and jam sandwiches, and I did get through quite a few of them. They were delicious.

For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and other high performers about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.