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How Robin Wright’s Training Regimen Gave Her a Leg Up in Her Career

How Robin Wright’s Training Regimen Gave Her a Leg Up in Her Career
Robin Wright attends the Los Angeles premiere screening of Netflix's "House of Cards" Season 6 at DGA Theater on October 22, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.Phillip Faraone/Getty Images

Since charming audiences in her breakout film role as Buttercup in 1987’s The Princess Bride, Robin Wright has appeared in movies such as Forrest Gump, Unbreakable and Blade Runner 2049. In addition, she stars as political wife Claire Underwood in the Netflix series House of Cards and has received seven Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award.

And in 2017, Wright costarred in the hit film Wonder Woman as Antiope, the warrior who trains our heroine. Obviously, the 52-year-old actress needed to be in stellar shape. Fortunately, her training regimen for House of Cards gave her a leg up.

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While filming 2013’s House of Cards, Wright put herself on the Paleo diet. As the name suggests, the Paleo diet includes only the foods that were available to Paleolithic-era humans — that is, from roughly 3.3 million years ago. These staples include high-quality animal proteins, healthy fats, fruits and low-starch vegetables.

The advantage of these foods is that they decrease the chances of suffering from cardiovascular disease by lowering blood pressure, helping with weight loss, reducing acne and promoting better overall physical strength and agility.

For exercise, Wright has always liked to keep it simple. No rock climbing or club swinging like ancient humans, just something tried and true.

“Running gets everything done, doesn’t it?” Wright has said. “Covers it all.”

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However, the actress admits that the specific demands of Wonder Woman required that she take it up a notch … or three. After all, her Amazon warrior would be showing more thigh and biceps than ever before.

“We would do horse riding for an hour,” she recalled, “then drive from the stable to the studio and do weight training for an hour — heavy weights and short reps to build size quickly.”

Fortunately, Wright was spared the higher degree of training for the superhero flick that her fellow cast members endured.

“I only got five weeks,” she admitted, “because I was on House of Cards and I didn’t do half of what the other girls did.”

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When Wright isn’t training to play a political animal or a fighting machine, her exercise routine is more basic. She still runs, lifts weights and does yoga.

Her favorite workout involves the fitness program Zumba, which is a Latin-inspired dance and aerobic regimen.

“With Zumba, you’re dancing, you’re moving your hips. So much fun,” she revealed.

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When it comes to aging, Wright has adopted a more relaxed attitude, one that is as curative and necessary as any physical or dietary program.

“One of the greatest virtues is acceptance, right?” she has suggested. “It’s a struggle to do it. It’s an exercise; it’s a muscle you have to train, to accept things that are hard to accept. And also, accept the things you can’t change. And change the things you can.”

But her attitude is not completely rosy.

“I’m not digging the brown spots I’ve got going on at this age,” she once bluntly admitted. “But guess what? You’ve got to welcome them all.”

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