Still, that’s just a smattering of Perlman’s varied body of work. And with a résumé that long comes a free pass from ever having to explain yourself—whether you’re voice acting for a video game or electing to do a straight-to-DVD movie like Scorpion King 3 (on sale now).
Perlman recently caught up with Men’s Fitness to talk about his many roles, and why he just might be the ultimate MF success story.
You say you were overweight as a kid. How heavy did you get?
I was 14 years old and over 300 pounds. I guess as a kid, I just did a lot of comfort eating. This is what I did to make myself feel better or feel safe or whatever. I’m able to manage it with enough success that I’m always in shape to do a movie. I feel like I’m really lucky to have become an actor and stay busy as an actor because I’m not sure I would have stayed in great shape. But in this profession, you have to.