Nicholas Galitzine Felt Like ‘Complete Fraud’ 1st Time He Tried on He-Man Costume (Exclusive)

Nicholas Galitzine sat down with “Extra” to talk becoming He-Man in "Masters of the Universe."

Galitzine said of taking on the iconic role, “I felt like I knew him. There was a really human, sensitive part of him that I saw in myself. There was a sense of using humor to kind of deflect pain and deal with the world around him, but also, you know, he's a very principled person and he has a really strong moral compass."

He dished on training to transform his body over five months, saying, “I come from a sporting background… I’ve been in gyms, but I think to transform my body from a state which was definitely not ready to play He-Man to adorn this miniskirt and chest plate is obviously incredibly trepidatious…  It was five months… not enough time really to do it in a comfortable way.”

Nicholas added, “We even had to start shooting while I was cutting, which was a challenge in and of itself, you know, because you’re acting in a scene and the first AD goes, ‘Oh, we got 10 minutes. We’re going to change the setup.’ And you run outside to the assault bike and you’re just pedaling away."

The actor also recalled the first time he tried on the famous costume. He confessed, “To be candid, when I first tried on the costume, you know, when I hadn’t fully made my transformation, I felt like a complete fraud. You know, I felt undeserving. I felt like, ‘How am I gonna get to this point?’”

He added, “It wasn’t really until that first day as He-Man on set when I put the costume on, I had the tan, I had the hair, and I went to set. You know, you're trying to like catch people's eyes to see their reaction to you, and so the feeling was very good, and Travis and Jason and Todd, our producers, you know, they saw me. And, you know, for our producers, they've been with this IP for 18 years, and so, it was really in seeing their reaction to me, that I was like, 'Okay, you can calm down now. The last five months haven't been in vain.'"

Plus, he talked about saying that iconic He-Man line, “By the power of Grayskull... I have the power!"

Galitzine explained, “For me, it’s not only important because it’s how he transforms, but it’s important because he’s telling himself that he is worthy, that he has worth, he has meaning, he has power. And for me, it was just, it was a very emotional line, scene, day, you know, and it’s pretty scary trying to do that line in front of about a crew of 400 people for the first time.”

He also explained why he didn't do a lot of practicing in front of the mirror, sharing, "I didn't want it to be so rehearsed that I lost the feeling of what it would be like to say it for the first time. And really, you know, if you see the movie, He-Man transforms a couple times, and there's a different delivery on the different times, when he's transforming for the first time and when he transforms again. And I just, that first time — when he does it in the movie for the first time, was the first time I'd done it — and I just wanted it to really come from my core, like I was finding it for the first time."

He laughed, "And also out of respect for my neighbors, I tried not to do too much empowering at home."