UrbanUpdate

Even if you weren’t already aware that Desmond Chiam was a Marvel alum (he played Flag Smasher Dovich in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), it wouldn’t require a large stretch of the imagination to picture him amongst the incredibly shredded actors who populate the MCU. The Australian-Singaporean actor’s chiseled pecs have played a supporting role in Amazon Prime’s With Love alongside his perennially shirtless himbo character Nick Zhao, and his Thorean physique has helped him shapeshift into roles as baddies and heartthrobs, like Clarence, Stephanie Hsu’s celibate Christian fiancé in Adele Lim’s newly released comedy Joy Ride.

Another (maybe) little-known fact? He’s a huge nerd. Fast forward from his early days of gaming in a basement to today, where he’s Zooming in from Australia on the set of the next Mortal Kombat film. The actor sat down with us to chat about his persistent food cravings, getting KO’d by Alex Shibutani on the pickleball court, and his longing for a renaissance in on-screen Asian nerd representation.

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.

Congrats on Mortal Kombat 2! Did you play the game growing up?

I wasn’t playing it so much as getting my ass kicked by my older cousins who had the consoles and took me to the arcades and stuff. They would show no mercy. There was a moment in the first film where they would reference getting swept-kicked twice and that was me. Fighting games have never been my genre of choice (there was a stage of my life where my only friends were people I met on World of Warcraft), but I jumped back in with Mortal Kombat 9 and haven’t stopped since then.

How do you prep for the movie version of a fighting game?

It’s a lot of physical conditioning that I haven’t done in a long time because usually I’m just pushing heavy things. Sometimes the costumes on these things can be really intense. And you’re standing in them for 12 to 14 hours a day. And now you’re thinking like, Can your joints hold up to the slow entropy of shoulder pads pushing down on you?

And your character King Jerrod has never been depicted even in the games, right?

Yeah, I’m a bit of a lore-hound for the stuff that I follow, and filling a role in the game that’s not a playable character, you also have to go off all the other stories that by inference reference him. Aside from the physical challenges of this role, it’s been interesting to try to figure out what this guy’s deal was in a way that honors the spirit of the games.

What was it like being part of the Marvel training room for Falcon and the Winter Soldier?

We were working with Dave Macomber, who’s coordinated stunts on a bunch of the Captain Americas and a lot of other Marvel stuff. His whole team is incredible and laser-precise. It was something to see. Funnily enough for Falcon, we were brought into the room for evals. And of the Flag Smashers—and there were seven of us—three of us injured ourselves in the first session. I think at that point they were like, “Well, let’s just have the doubles do most of it.” I was gutted because I love stunts. I was like, “No, put me in, put me in!” I was begging them, and at the end they relented. I wasn’t one of the ones who injured myself, fortunately, so I could do a fair amount of it. But shoutout to my double, who absolutely crushed it.

What’s your typical fitness routine?

I don’t stop. I’ve done something physical since I was 10. It’s probably been an unbroken chain with the exception of injuries. I swam competitively early on, which is a terrible sport for someone who has a deep fear of water. But you know the whole Asian parent thing. Certain things were unquestionable, so I did that for about 15 years. I dropped out in college and went into breakdancing instead, which is also very physical and involves acrobats and handstands and all that stuff. After that, I went into weightlifting and was trying to put on a bit of size, which I thought would help the career. And that’s been my bread and butter ever since. I’m in the gym probably about five times a week. I just try to keep it consistent, and I haven’t missed too many days in the last eight or nine years. I think that’s largely because I don’t try to murder myself in the gym.

Do you prefer to workout alone or with other people?

I like working out with friends and my partner. Mostly my partner, Sami. I’ve dragged her into this lifting world. During the pandemic, we set up a tiny gym in our living room and that’s kind of been our refuge. So I’ve gotten really used to working out alone. I don’t put any music on, it’s just silence and a few clanks every now and again, and that’s pretty much my happy place. The less outward stimuli there are, somehow the more effectively I can channel my mental efforts into the particular task I’m doing at that moment.

Talk to me about browsing cakes on Goldbelly. Do you actually hit the buy button or are you just window shopping?

I’ve learned to not hit the buy button because I frequently did in my early days of browsing Goldbelly and we’d end up with these giant cakes that I’ve taken two slices out of and then feel obliged to finish because I’m Asian and I don’t wanna waste money. So I’d just be shoveling whole cakes down my throat within the space of a week. I have since learned that window shopping is more the speed that I should approach Goldbelly with, but every now and again, I’ll hit “yes” on a Brooklyn Blackout cake or something.

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Do you have any other cheat foods?

I would say I have a sweet tooth and that would technically be true, but in the Venn diagram of what I like to eat, I just have a tooth. I love eating. I crave everything. I’m a hungering maw at the center of this universe. My favorite food group is pizza. I’ve gone on a deep dive and I’ve figured out a way to vaguely make it healthy, but at the end of the day, it’s a pizza. It’s got cheese and probably some meat on it.

What do you typically eat in a day?

I eat a lot of Chinese food and tend to make a lot of Singaporean food. There’s this omelet that we have which I’ve convinced myself is healthy because it’s radish, chai poh. We put a lot of salted radish in eggs, and that’s my breakfast. Otherwise, right now, I’m trying to cut so I’m hovering around 1,600 calories a day which means a lot of tuna, broccolini, chicken, and spinach. The standard male “I want to look good for a film” diet.

If I’m bulking, all gloves are off. I’ve learned to have a little more moderation with it, but if I want two sausage McMuffins, I’ll have two sausage McMuffins. If I think about a pizza, I must have it. And being back in Australia is so dangerous because there are all these foods that you can’t get in the US, like meat pies and chicken salt on chips.

Your new movie Joy Ride involves a lot of partying and drinking. Would you say that’s a part of your lifestyle?

You know what? I think partying is a form of cardio. I think it’s a net calorie loss. I don’t drink too much because I’m a lightweight. I’m like a two beer guy. I tend not to drink most of the time unless there’s a big huge thing like an event or I’m with a bunch of friends I haven’t seen in a while. Otherwise, I tend to avoid it. And at that point, if you’re out dancing and having fun with friends, you’re losing calories, baby. And that’s a very Clarence answer, to tie it back to Joy Ride. Clarence is a good Christian boy. He’s gonna party, but like, in the eyes of God.

I saw you playing pickleball with Ronny Chieng on Instagram. What’s the story behind that?

So Ronny, I went to law school with him and have known him for 18 years. I was giving Hannah [Pham, Ronny’s wife] a lot of shit about playing pickleball and then one time she was like, “Hey, we’re in Joshua Tree, why don’t you come up and play? Because we have this place that has two pickleball courts.” And me and Alex [Hodge] are like, “Ok, sure.” We talked a big game, but the moment they put the bats in our hands, it was actually a lot of fun. It’s such a low bar of entry for skill that it really makes you feel like you’re waiting for a call from the Tennis Association because you’re like, “Yeah, I’m an amazing prodigal talent.” Speaking of prodigal talents, we then played with Alex Shibutani. His first time playing, he kicked all our asses. But I guess that’s why he’s an Olympian.

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You’ve talked about how people want to see only one version of Asian masculinity on screen—strong, swole actors—in order to reflect a kind of Western ideal of manhood. Did you ever feel like you were pigeonholed or pressured to go in that direction?

I don’t think I’ve been pigeonholed by the impulse to go in that direction. I think that was the vector that a lot of us and the culture needed to take as a whole since we were coming so far from behind. Where it starts to become dangerous and really fraught is where you go, “OK, that worked generally and that can be the only way it works for anyone.” I’d love to see some of my friends’ expressions of how they’ve grown into adulthood be depicted on screen. They didn’t get into weights and the ultra-masculine stuff. They’re weeny, kind of nerdy guys, but they’re such powerful beings that I’m like, “Let’s take that old stereotype of being nerdy and make that a thing where it’s OK for Asian men, and then have that extend to all expressions of individuality and gender identity.” There are too many human experiences out there for anyone to declare, “This is the only way.”

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Lori Keong is a freelance writer and editor who's been contributing at GQ since 2021. She's previously worked on staff at The Cut, The Strategist, SELF, and Marie Claire. Elsewhere, her writing on design, style, wellness, and beauty has appeared in Architectural Digest, Dwell, Allure, ELLE, PAPER, and beyond.Related Stories for GQReal Life Diet