*super deep breath but then speaks real quietly in an inside voice because I love you and don’t wanna yell*
Reminder that this is actually what a person who can do what Eliot does the way he does it looks like! If you look at Hollywood’s idea of action heroes and bodybuilders who are both trying to achieve specific looks, you see super cut muscles and over defined lines. Sure maybe they can lift 200 pounds but not very effectively and not for long. If you look at weightlifters, or boxers when training, or even people who actual do demanding labor for a living? They look a lot like Eliot, allowing for natural variation in body type. This is why Hugh Jackman passed out during/right after filming Wolverine fight scenes. He was weight cutting (aka restricting water) as well as being on a restrictive diet to begin with, all for a look-not to be able to fight.
Fat protects your muscles and provides them energy, properly hydrated tissue is plump and full, and everyone stores excess protein/carbs (which is what “fat” usually is, extra you materials so your body can keep replenishing you as you wear out) slightly differently based on a host of things including genetic predisposition.
Chris Kane put on weight for this scene to be in the weight class to fight the other guy, an actual MMA fighter, but I highly doubt he did it without knowing he’d have to still be able to fight and move like he normally does. Remember, this is a tv show, not a movie. Chris has to be able to film scenes like normal and he did a majority of his own stunts, if not all (I’ve never quite found a clear yes/no as to whether he did them all but I know he did most of them. I desperately need the commentaries). So I’d be very surprised to find out he put on a huge amount of weight for this episode. It would look weird to have Eliot change sizes that way, even accounting for the fact that most likely CK often had stunt padding on under his clothes.
But let’s put it in some context for the character, too, because character meta gets me out of bed in the morning and rocks me to sleep at night. Eliot is a fighter yes, but it’s a specific type of fighting in context. He’s not a MMA fighter or a boxer or any other professional athlete. He fights to survive and to protect. He has to be able to fight three guys, run some distance, solve a problem like a locked door or identifying escape routes, fight some more, continue to operate around any injuries, and probably run some more for good measure. An Eliot who fights three guys and then passes out from exhaustion is not an effective Eliot.
To say nothing of the fact that Eliot fights guys with weapons. Fat is a good cushion not only for the pushin’ but also to take hits from batons or bats or to provide more barriers between your soft organs and the bad guy’s knives. Slice a super cut guy along his side and you’ve done major muscle damage. Slice along the side of a guy with a few extra inches of fatty tissue and Eliot’s gonna add your knife to his collection of ‘stabby things I took from people who didn’t deserve them’.
Your body also needs fuel to heal! The extra you materials really come in handy when trying to repair yourself. It’s a bit like being able to grab parts from the tool shed as opposed to going to Lowe’s. (Not that I avoid going to Lowe’s except I do because Lowe’s has a tendency to eat my paycheck. They just display the hatchets and drills so prettily). And well, Eliot gets hurt. A lot. It’s what he does. So having the parts on hand means he heals more effectively. Being adequately fed and watered means you’re healthy and healthy people heal faster.
Bringing more character into it, we often see flashbacks of Eliot in prison type situations and/or being tortured. Having a little extra weight on him means he can potentially go longer before lack of food starts to reduce his efficacy. And we know Eliot likes efficacy. And this is all from a standpoint of Eliot being good at what he does! This is to say nothing of the fact that the man loves to cook and drinks a reasonable amount of beer. Eliot with snacks is a familiar image and yeah, it’s for the team to share but you can bet he eats it too.
This is an exceptionally long post telling you things you already know because I’m incapable of simply saying “Yeah!” when I really wanna say
“Thank you Leverage for not only protecting your actors by not making them starve themselves and dehydrate themselves for the sake of an ab shot they may not even genetically be capable of without damaging their bodies but also for not giving two shits about Eliot potentially not being eye candy simply because he’s not what Hollywood standards have decided are hot this week, you portrayed a realistic man in a realistic role for him and I thank you. Also Chris Kane probably gives really good hugs, he just has that look which is tangential to the point but I’m making it anyways.”
