Lynn Collins

 All it took for Lynn Collins to give up her two-pack-a-day smoking habit was six weeks of acupuncture and a man named Kerry Gaynor. “He’s amazing,” says Collins of the certified hypnotist, who’s talked the likes of Matt Damon, Aaron Eckhart, and Charlize Theron into butting out once and for all. Collins got Gaynor’s phone number from her friend Rashida Jones, who got it from Paul Rudd. Three sessions later, she was nicotine-free. “I haven’t had a cigarette since,” says Collins, “and that was three years ago.” Yet for all the credit due to the Gaynor method, Collins herself was well-prepared for the battle against cigarettes, having recently cast a much fiercer demon from her life.

In the winter of 2008, Collins was shooting the Marvel spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine in Australia opposite Hugh Jackman. Every morning, she came to set hungover after a night of heavy partying and binge drinking. “It was just a party everywhere because I met a lot of Australians and they’re so much fun,” says Collins, who is sitting in the lobby of the Bowery Hotel in Manhatttan, cradling a glass of sparkling water in her right hand. I ask how her punishing nightlife routine affected her demanding role as Kayla Silverfox, the telepathic mutant and love interest to Jackman’s Wolverine. “When you’re a functioning alcoholic, you can hide it,” she says. “And I was young enough that it didn’t show in my face. But it got to a point where somebody was like, it’s not cute anymore, and I was like, Oh God.”

Lynn Collins is not yet a household name, but that might change when Disney’s gargantuan sci-fi tentpole John Carter, in which Collins plays a martian princess, is released on March 9. For now, her struggles with alcoholism remain generally undocumented by the press. She is, however, remarkably candid for an actor whose last check was signed by The House That Mickey Built. “If I picked up one drink right now it would mean I’d be gone by the end of the night,” says Collins, who’s been sober for almost four years. “I never understood people who can have just one. I’m like, Don’t you want to get bombed?”

In 2008, Lynn Collins married the actor Steven Strait after a four-year relationship. Strait, who stars on the upcoming Starz series Magic City, was with her during her darkest hours, although in the beginning they were just a young couple having fun. “Until I took it all to hell,” says Collins, with surprising nonchalance. “Steven is incredibly smart and incredibly powerful, and he knows what he wants. Whatever I was doing, he was the rock, and now there’s two rocks. It’s a more equal relationship, but it wasn’t always like that.”

"Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" is a biopic on legendary athlete Milkha Singh and Farhan is currently undergoing special training for his lead role in the movie. Similarly American actress Lynn Collins had to go through a fixed regime for her role as Dejah Thoris in " John Carter", releasing in India March 9.

"John Carter" is about a man who gets transported to Mars and gets caught between 12-foot-tall barbarians. Collins plays a princess and her role was quite physical with a lot of wirework, stunts and sword fights. So a lot of preparation was required from her end, says Chow.

"It was a three-month routine with a variety of one- to two-hour-long training sessions, five to six times per week. It comprised taekwondo, fight training, boxing and kick-boxing on pads and focus-mitts for cardio.

"We worked on ab-workouts and core to prepare Lynn Collins for the wirework she needed to do for stunts, and free-weights and machines focussing on different parts of the body each session. We also did a lot of plyometrics to make her legs strong," shared Chow.

The celebrity trainer says there was added focus on Collins' muscles, which made his job tougher.

"(Her character) Dejah Thoris has a lot of tattoos on her body and they were painted on Lynn every day of filming. We needed the muscles to actually show through the tattoos; so we focussed on getting a lot of definition in her muscles," he said.

According to Chow, Collins "was very focussed herself".

"She worked out every day on her days off and most days on set as well. It wasn't necessary as she had that down herself," he said.

So what is it like training popular faces?

"They are great to train. Celebrities are very highly motivated, extremely focussed and extremely hardworking. They will work very, very hard to get what they need for a part," he said.

What about a few general fitness tips for people who wish to get fit figures like celebrities?

"Fitness is actually about doing something regularly, every single week. It's about making the time to do something - like an exercise or a sport that you enjoy.

"Diet is important too - eating healthy food, small portions many times a day rather than three big meals a day and keeping carbohydrates down. I do believe in satisfying food cravings but it needs to be in proportion. So if you have a sweet tooth, it's okay to have a small piece of chocolate, but you can't have a whole chocolate cake," he said.