Sam Claflin marked his 40th birthday with a shirtless selfie and a caption that read, 'Goodbye 30's. Ello 40.' The photo put his lean frame back in view at a moment when the body he built for Billy Dunne in Daisy Jones & The Six is still doing work on its own.
Sam Claflin and Billy Dunne
Sam Claflin said the goal for Billy Dunne was 'a more withdrawn, slightly slimmer look and feel.' He added, 'When I got the part, I had a bit of extra muscle weight to me,' and described one early costume check where 'a pair of flared jeans were way too tight around my thighs.'
That role-specific build leaned on 'as much cardio and careful dieting as was safe,' plus 'a personal trainer' and 'a very, very specific calorie-per-day intake' built into a daily meal plan. Claflin said, 'And no word of a lie, within a month we started to see results.'
Daisy Jones & The Six training
Billy Dunne is a rock singer whose drug use meant he was meant to look gaunt and underfed, so the physique was never just about looking fit. It was built to serve a character in Daisy Jones & The Six, which makes the birthday selfie read less like a one-off gym post and more like a check-in on a body that still carries the mark of that work.
Claflin is also known for Peaky Blinders and The Hunger Games, but this post centered the discipline behind his screen image rather than the credit list. At 40, the photo suggests the same controlled routine that helped him lean out for Billy Dunne has stayed visible, even if the caption sounds like a simple birthday joke.
Goodbye 30's, Ello 40
The practical takeaway is straightforward: the look did not come from a generic celebrity fitness campaign, but from a tightly managed acting prep routine built around cardio, diet, and a trainer. Claflin’s birthday post puts that transformation in the present tense, which is the part that makes it worth a second look.
