title: The Body Genius, Part 1
author: The Truth
contenttype: podcast
publication: The Truth
published: 2019-04-03T20:00:00-04:00
sourceurl: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/dovetail.prxu.org//97/4288fdab-000b-43ab-86d0-4902cead7873/TheBodyGeniusPart_1.mp3
word_count: 4454
This episode of The Truth includes strong language and violence. Please use Listener discretion. In 2017, Hollywood actor Adam Kyle had a truly baller year. He played the lead role in three huge movies that you've probably heard of. First was Kane, the automatic man. General, why did you augment my body? And fill my mind with hate? Next game, Dirty Boy. I'm a pornographer, Doc. I know all the ins and outs help people get their rags off. But I don't know nothing about love. And finally, prison ship. My hatred is see enough, Captain! See how the fuck are thousand ships! You didn't realize all those came out in the same year, did you? Well, they did, and they were all huge hits with the critics, and they all made bank at the box office. But here's something even cooler. In each one, my man Adam Kyle looked totally completely different. In Kane, he was this jacked half robot man. Oh, I'm fine! In Dirty Boy, he was this overweight, bedridden magazine pervert with a go-t. I'm dying, Doc. And in prison ship, he was all emaciated and gross for the first two hours, and then totally ripped for the third. Wow. Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Kyle. Critics and talk shows called him a chameleon. They said basically nobody in the entire history of Hollywood even came close to being as committed as Adam Kyle. You know, you look nuts in this movie. How do you do it? Well, Rich, the way I see it, my job as an actress to give you everything I got. When I heard all these nice stuff, they were saying, I just smiled. I felt incredibly psyched to deep down in my heart. Because Adam was some of my best work. I'm Adam's trainer. My name's Evan. I'm the one who made Adam's body look insane in those movies, and I'm the one that got it back to normal afterward. Actually, if I'm being honest, I'm one of the main guys who knows how to do that kind of stuff. All right. All right, you're almost there, dude. Come on. Give me one more than you're done. I got my own gym right here in Studio City. I named it Twain Andils. After a drawing I did in my workout notebook one day, just came to me. I got two trainers working under me, Jake and Jules. Hey, Evan. What's up, Cat? Five more. Getting an actor's body to where a movie needs it to be, showing them what workouts to do, what to eat, hyping them up. That's my art and my passion. Sign up with me, come to my gym, work with me to set aggressive goals, and I will not let you down. Looking back, though, there's one client I wish I'd never taken on. His name was Wesley Stern. Hey, Evan. I'm Wesley. It's not that we didn't meet Wesley's body goals. We absolutely did. We obliterated them, but about six months after I met him, Wesley turned up dead in my gym. Strap to a weight machine that wasn't even part of his workout plan. This is the body genius, the five part story on the truth. Part one, the bad breakfast. Now back to the body genius. Oh, it'll bring me such pleasure to see this all work out. You know, when Wesley told me, when... I first met Wesley through Elaine Turese, one of my classiest clients. I got her in shape for Medusa Rises and behind Lady Debra. She introduced us at this pretty dank health cafe called Wellness Corral. So Wesley and I did a doll's house together back. And when was that Wesley 2003? Yeah. And I remember being up there on stage every night. And I was looking at Wesley thinking who is this brilliant creature? And we leave the theater and you should have seen the girls waiting outside, Evan. It was an absolute mob. Oh, wow. What was that like, man? It was alright. Wesley, come on. It was more than alright. It was the height of Wesley Mania. Because you've just done that movie? What was that movie? Anywhere you wanna. Anywhere you wanna. There's this beautiful young Wesley and this precious girl and Wesley dances and he's so so funny. And he's so flirty. I actually just saw it on a list where they called it one of the biggest teen movies ever. Get out of here. Oh man. It's a stupid movie. How was it, kid? It did box him in a little bit. Everybody wanted me to make another movie with dancing in it. But now Wesley has been cast in a new project and he's very excited about it. It's about a policeman. It's called Immortal Cop. Nice. Wesley plays this wonderful cop who chases this horrible drug dealer into a cave. Into a mummy exhibit. And then he gets a magical talisman. Whoa. That's like the best movie I've ever heard of already. Actually, I shoot the talisman and then get cursed with immortality, right? And then I have to watch all my friends and family die. Then I spend a century getting the strongest anyone's ever been. And then I rejoin the police force to fight the mafia of the future. Oh my god, yeah. That's awesome. It's actually really complex. It's not just some futuristic action movie, you know, because I can act, you know? Totally. Really act. But everybody's got it stuck in their head who I am. That's death for an actor. I want this to be the kind of performance that makes people go, that's Wesley Stern. Yeah, hell yeah, man. We can totally make that happen. Here, check it out. These are our gym specs. We got four private weight training rooms, 20 state-of-the-art weight machines, two ace coach trainers, places super clean. We're like always cleaning it. And do you do like food too? You bet. We got a chef onsite magda. When we're in the thick of it, you're going to be eating like six, seven meals a day. And we're going to... Yuck. Yuck. Wesley, honey, don't say yuck. Sorry. Um, excuse me for a second. Whoa. Does this guy even like me? Wesley, people like me. He does. He likes you, okay? He just has a little trouble trusting people. He's taken a lot of very bad advice in the last decade. But now a big studio is taking a chance on him. No one's taken a real chance on Wesley in so long, Evan. Just wish I felt like he liked me like at the hall. Do you remember what you said to me right before I picked you to get me in shape for Medusa Rises? Uh, yeah. I think that when Evan gets back, you should say that to him. Like, exactly. Yes, yes. Sorry about that. Sorry. I'm going to level with you, Wesley. Nobody in this town does what I do. At least not as good as I do it. And that's because I love the human body and I love movies. And therefore, I know how important a good looking body is as a storytelling instrument. Sign up with me. Come to my gym and I will not let you down. Together we'll make your body look insane. Okay. Sounds good to me, man. Yeah? Yeah. Let's do this. You're alright. Yes! I'm so pleased. I can't tell you how much pleasure this brings me. Dude, you have cool arms. Yeah. Everyone says so. Do you want to see the cop? See the what? Immortal cop, dude. This concept artist from the movie helped me figure out what he should look like. Oh, yeah. Take a look at this. Whoa! This shit is severe. Right? This guy's massive. I know. Look at you, too. I'm on Cloud 9. Dude, is this a cop outfit from the future? Turns out, under all that attitude, Wesley was my kind of guy. He wanted to look like an action figure, basically. Huge traps, thick chest and arms, crazy big thighs, crazy lean everywhere else. I outlined a super ambitious program for him right there, basically off the top of my head. A few months later, we got to work. All right, Wesley. Are you ready? Here we go, baby. Wesley was the ideal client. Showed up on time, almost never cheated on the 5,000 calorie a day system I designed for him. Always kept pushing and pushing, whether it was deadlifts, tire flips, battle ropes, whatever. And he made my job fun. Like, I yell stuff at all my clients, right? Because it gets him hyped. But they don't only yell stuff back. Wesley did. How jacked you wanna look? I'm very. How strong do you wanna be? I'm not. And he had a real brain for training. Like, he actually grasped the underlying concepts. Interval training is how we burn body fat after bulking you up. Do you understand? Uh-huh. Low body fat makes huge muscles look cool on camera. Do you get it? Mm-hmm. Commitment like that, it gets results. Sometimes I'd look at how big Wesley was getting. And it would make me so happy I just like laugh. And Wesley would ask me why I was laughing and I'd lie and say I was thinking of a show I'd seen. And he'd ask me what show. And I would just stop talking until he changed his subject. One afternoon, just four months in, we both caught a glimpse of him in the gym mirror. And I think he'd hit us both at the exact same time. Check it out, man. You're him. You're immortal cop. I am. I'm immortal cop. All right, Evan dude, shots. Oh, man. I want to thank you for everything you did. Oh, okay, man. You did all the real work. Cheers. No, no. You know how hard it is to get a guy like me to really believe that things can change. Well, look, the most of the time it felt like I was just hanging out with one of my buddies for real. Yeah, right. I know I was a pain in your ass. But, you know, none of my other clients ever took me out for drinks. Really? Yeah. Actors are assholes, man. They're so fake. Yeah. You're right. They are. They're fake. Yeah. You know, they love posting pictures where we're drinking weight gain shakes together, or I'm pointing out their abs like I'm scared of them. But if I ever try to like hang out with them outside the gym, they'd be like, uh, somebody get this dumb jok away from me. Everybody in this town should be kissing your ass. Okay, not the other way around. You trainers are the reason theater twerps like me can act like gods and superheroes in the movies, man. You really mean that? Never was so much owed by so many. Who so feel? Whoa! That was awesome! What was that for? Oh, it's the Churchill, man. Oh, man! I thought it was like a frog monster guy, like an original character. Two more please. Now, dude, I almost played him a couple years ago, man. A young Winston Churchill did a makeup test and everything. Please. They went in a different direction. What? What are they stupid? Oh, man. Yeah, alright. Evan, dude, when we first met, I told you I never made another dance movie after anywhere you want to. I was a lie, man. I made one more. It was called Sleep Dance. I played a teenager who danced really well in his sleep. Was it? That dude, it was terrible. I co-wrote it, too. My team tried to shelve it, but it literally jumped to the internet. And that's when everybody stopped hiring me, dude. Everybody. And now, for some reason, I'm getting another shot. And you helped me not mess it up. Sorry, it's just been real tough. That's alright. You let it out. Let it out, dude. I got a confession, too. You know, I act like I don't want the credit for the work that I do with the actors, but, it's true, this is just one. I'd like for one of my clients to take me down the red carpet of one of those award shows with all the cameras flashing and say, this is my trainer. He is why I looked the way I do, and I love him. I love my trainer. Listen, that's gonna be us, man. That's gonna be us, can be your bitch. We hugged and got drunk and played darts all night. Looking back, it was without question a fun ass night that I'll never forget. Wesley started filming pretty soon after that, and worked out slow down. The plan was to pick it back up when he needed to look especially shredded for some shirtless scenes. But Wesley Stern never got the chance. It was early in the morning on the sixth anniversary of me opening my gym. Every year on that day, I have a tradition. I eat what I call the bad breakfast. Just a huge unhealthy feast right at my desk. Two huge stacks of pancakes, donuts, multiple sausage egg and cheese biscuits. Just so I can secretly work off all the calories that day without anybody knowing. It's a weird thrill known only to the super fit. But I gotta get there at like 4.30 a.m. to meet the delivery guy so nobody sees. What the hell? When I got there, the gym security shutter was halfway up. No bueno. I saw Wesley's Mercedes parked halfway up the block, but we didn't have a workout schedule that week. Insanely, the front door to the gym was wide open. Seriously, what the hell? Hello? Somebody in here? Wesley? All the lights were off, like they should be. Except for the machine room in the back of the gym. Hello? Wesley? Oh man. There was Wesley. Strapped into our newest fitness machine. The all-in-one strap motor ultimate. Fuck, dude. This thing could convert itself to do any kind of workout and it looked like Wesley had somehow turned all the modes on at once. The leg press plate was drawn up almost all the way to his hips. But the built-in ab crunch pad had pulled him in the opposite direction, forcing his knees into his own ribs and caving them in. The chest fly handles had pulled both of his arms clockwise around his body, twisting his torso completely around, while the cushion from the butt blaster held his horribly smashed face in place. He was totally mangled, just a mess of blood, teeth, bone, and muscle. All of it vibrating a little. Hey, you order this $200 breakfast? The delivery guy walked in. Oh my god! He horked. I couldn't blame him. I took the digital pole sensor that I keep attached to my waistband at all times for impromptu cardio troubleshooting, and I clipped it to Wesley's finger just as I thought. The body genius will return in a moment. I'm about to tell you all about today's sponsors, but just to brighten things up a bit, I'm going to let my two-year-old daughter tell you about the new furniture we got from article. We got new chairs. And what do you think of the new chairs? They look like sculptures. They look like sculptures. May I do it? Article offers well-made modern furniture designed with a Scandinavian simplicity that even appeals to the very particular tastes of a two-year-old. No new friends and beautiful. What do you think of the new table? I never so much. No matter how many items, every order is shipped at a flat rate of $49, and in stock items can be expected in two weeks or less. An article is offering our listeners $50 off on their first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit article.com slash truth, and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout. That's article.com slash truth, to get $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. Article.com slash truth. This episode is also brought to you by Robinhood. Robinhood is an investing app that lets you buy and sell stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptos all commission-free. While other brokerages charge up to $10 for every trade, Robinhood doesn't charge any commission fees, so you can trade stocks and keep all of your profits. With Robinhood, you can learn how to invest in the market as you build your portfolio. Discover new stocks, track your favorite companies, and get custom notifications for price movements, so you never miss the right moment to invest. And Robinhood is giving listeners of the truth a free stock like Apple Forwarders Sprint to help you build your portfolio. Sign up at thetruth.robinhood.com. That's thetruth.robinhood.com. Now back to the Body Genius. I told the cops everything I knew, and I shut the gym down for a week. No appointments, no consultations, nothing. Days passed, and I felt real depressed. I just wanted to watch movies in my apartment. I even tracked down a copy of anywhere you wanted. Promise over tempo. What happens now? Where are we gonna go? We'll go. Anywhere you want. The movie was awesome. Wesley was a great fucking actor, but I didn't get to finish it. You got Evan. Hi. When I got to Twin Anvils, Detective Taylor was in my office with this red-faced bald guy who already hated me for some reason. Hey, you're the trainer. Who paid you a fee? Wesley or the studio? Uh, the studio. What? Give me all your hiring paperwork. It's okay, Evan. He's with me. Um, alright. It's in my safe. I want everything related to your work with Stern. Um, okay. You're being really mean to me in my own office, but I'll give you what you want, I guess. Thank you so much. Make it quick, will you? Uh, okay. I have them right here, but they're mine, so I'm gonna have to make some copies. Whatever. Do it. Okay. It's a slow copier because it's a Xerox machine in a gym. Okay. They're done. Give me that. Fuck. Sorry, Evan, the guy's an asshole. Dude, call me a mead. No, Mr. Blake's an investigator from Tobins of Hollywood. A firm that should Wesley for a mortal cap? With like, life insurance? Yes, insurance. If a movie has to stop production because the star gets hurt, costs a lot of people a lot of money. So they get them insured. If Mr. Blake can prove training at your gym was not necessary risk, Tobins might be able to wease a lot of pain with full claim. They're also trying to determine if Wesley had any drugs in his system. Hang on. Whoa. Well, Wesley's gains were 100% legit. We worked day and night to get him huge. I would know if he was juicing and makes your sweat smell weird. Evan. I'll prove it if I got it. If you want me to reproduce Wesley's results with a similar size, man, I am 100% prepared to do so. I mean, drugs in the traditional sense. Oh. Wesley was a drug addict. Really? Up until about a year ago, I don't know if you knew this, but his career kind of fallen off. People stopped hiring him because the drugs made him unpredictable. You told me that was because of sleep dance. Tobins is running his body through every drug test known to man at their facility right now. Save us some work, I guess, between you and me, though. They're going to pay a big time. It sucks to be them, I guess, huh? Hey, well, I have a here. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your relationship with Mr. Stern? Oh. Yeah, that would... That would rip, actually. I've hardly talked to anybody all week. Just been feeling so messed up. I knew Wesley's body goes better than anybody in the world, and I'm telling you, ending up all dead and mangled like he did. That is just so, so far from what he wanted. Were you friends? Me and Wesley? I mean, I don't want to put words into his mouth, but yeah, we went out for drinks once. But there were some fights, too, right? Some pretty public fights from what I've heard. Fight? The night you went out for drinks with him, I guess you kept pretty drunk, was that right? Uh, yeah. My body works really well, so I get drunk really fast. I met someone, a woman. See there, guy? Uh-huh. That's Wesley Stern over there. I helped him gain 30 pounds of muscle for his movie called Mortal Cop. Yeah? Evan, dude, come on, stop. She doesn't care. Let's go. I got a secarp. Actually, I love sci-fi. Oh, well, sorry then, because it's actually not sci-fi. It's just cerebral trauma, because Wesley's trying to make everybody forget that he was a dancing teenager. Evan, shut up! Come on, let's go. And then your coach trainers told me Wesley showed up at the gym next morning, unscheduled. So if anybody in the gym guesses the number of marbles in this fishball, they get a free year of smoothies from any Vita Palisol case. Well, Evan, everything you told that woman last night went up on the fucking internet this morning. Whoa, hey, man, cool down. This is why you signed a non-disclosure agreement, moron! I-I know, dude, I'm not stupid. And now the studio is gonna sue your ass, and I am gonna make sure that nobody ever comes to your shitty tiny gym again! Hey, hey, hey, Wesley, man, come on. Do not talk to me like that in front of my coach trainers. Yes, see you in hell, Evan! They said you smashed the fishball. Yeah. Yeah, I did, but dude, Wesley and I made up literally that afternoon. He took me out for a laser tag, and he admitted that he overreacted. And the studio didn't even care. Didn't anybody tell you that? And then another time, at that dessert shop across the street, cream baby, you pulled up in your car, and so Wesley's sitting out front drinking a coke float and a big frosty glass. What the hell is that, Wesley? A coke float, dude! You are racing games with that! All right! Hey, just take it from me like that. What are you doing? I'm gonna tear it. Don't kill it! I'm watching. Oh fine, fine, I can't eat this, master Evan. Can I throw it through the window of your corny ass me? Yada! That was a mistake, my man. Your coach, and Jules says you chased Wesley's six blocks. Oh, well, yeah, that did happen, actually. I like stopped, though. He paid for the damage from my car, actually. It wasn't even that bad. I also talked to one of Jack's clients, and she remembered you and Wesley yelling, some disturbing things, during a workout. How kill you first! How kill you first! How kill you first! How kill you first! Well, yeah, that happened, but dude, that was an acting exercise slash lifting chant that we made up. It's the best of both worlds. First of its kind, that was a good day. Are you trying to say that I didn't like Wesley or... That Straff motor Ultima, you found Wesley, and can you tell me about how that thing works? Not really, I mean, it's pretty new. Personally, I prefer free weights to machines, because they... I got some Straff motor, explained it to me. The Ultima's got a little computer in it, so you can set your whole workout ahead of time, and go exercise to exercise without leaving the spot. He said the way all the different little parts were against each other with Wesley, the chance is that happening by accident, where one in a million. Sound like a company man trying to cover his ass short. Then he showed me something else. The Ultima keeps a little history of every workout, and apparently, those settings were changed in the middle of Wesley's workout. While he was strapped in, you see there's a password protected interface to let somebody do that. It's called the trainer mode, something wrong, Evan? Uh, no, no. Well, actually, for some reason, the words that you're saying to me right now, they're giving me a stomach ache. Well, I guess we're asking my questions. Here's my number if you want to update your statement. I'll update my statement. Yeah, you know, if there's anything you want to get off of chest. I liked Detective Taylor, so why didn't I like the stuff he was saying? And then it hit me, not all it wants, but little by little. Detective Taylor is a detective. Detective Taylor thinks somebody killed Wesley Stern. Detective Taylor had a list of times where I seemed mad at Wesley. Detective Taylor said something about a trainer mode in a slow, scary way. Wait a minute. It was suspect in the murder of Wesley Stern. I opened my office window and did a pull-up onto the roof. That kind of thing is very easy for me. Usually I enjoy it, but this was different. Somebody had an idea about me that was totally wrong and that felt gross. It was like being off my target weight by seven pounds, totally unacceptable. And if somebody out there really had killed Wesley, well, just the thought pissed me off in a whole different way. Right there on that roof, I made a firm commitment to myself that I would design a plan to prove I didn't kill my friend. And I would not let me down. Part two of the body genius is coming in two weeks. To hear more stories like this, go to thetruthpodcast.com. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Our handle is the Truth Fiction. The Truth is a part of Radiotopia from PRX, the curated network of extraordinary, cutting-edge podcasts. You can learn more about all the Radiotopia shows at radiotopia.fm. And if you'd like to sponsor a future episode of the Truth, send an email to sponsor at radiotopia.fm. Special thanks to the Magnet Theatre. They offer classes and shows on improv, sketch, and storytelling in New York City. Learn more at magnettheater.com. For full list of credits, visit our website, thetruthpodcast.com.