Mike O’Hearn, four-time Mr. Universe champion and American Gladiators legend, sat down with Ariel Helwani on his podcast and made his position on PEDs clear while also defending actors like Ryan Reynolds from accusations that have become increasingly common online.
When Helwani asked O’Hearn directly, “True or false, you’ve never taken PEDs?” the bodybuilder answered with confidence, pointing to both his early achievements and his son’s genetics as proof.
“By 13, 14, I was already winning bodybuilding shows and powerlifting,” O’Hearn said. “By 15, I was 280 lbs. And my son is further ahead than that. At seven, he looks like a mutant.”
According to O’Hearn, legendary bodybuilding promoter Joe Weider warned him early on about the consequences of abusing PEDs.
“Weider said don’t talk about it and I never talked about it,” O’Hearn recalled. “But that’s the path. You destroy yourself as a youngster, you’re not going to be here as an adult my years.”
Later in the conversation, the topic shifted to Hollywood physiques, where O’Hearn pushed back against the internet’s tendency to assume any muscular actor must be using PEDs.
“When you start saying like Ryan Reynolds at 185 lbs is on it for Blade, it’s like, okay, you guys have completely lost your minds,” he said.
O’Hearn expanded on that point by bringing up UFC athletes, many of whom possess elite physiques despite training primarily for performance rather than aesthetics.
“UFC figh ters, there’s some freaky physiques,” he said. “Those guys in no world train like a bodybuilder. They’re running. They’re training four times a day in different styles and everything. They shouldn’t have that type of physique, but they do. That’s the reality of life. There’s just some mutants walking the streets.”
He argued that constantly dismissing exceptional physiques as impossible without PEDs only creates mental limitations for people.
“As soon as you shut yourself down and put a ceiling on it, like this is not possible, you can’t get there,” O’Hearn said. “All right, cool. That’s you, not me.”
