OnlyOnAOL: The secret to Rebecca Romijn's killer body

By: Donna Freydkin

Rebecca Romijn is truly to dye for.

She's the host of GSN's body-painting competition "Skin Wars," a job that seems designed for Romijn given her own background. Let's not forget that she was a vision in blue as Mystique in the 2000 hit "X-Men," a role she repeated in "X2: X-Men United" and "X-Men: The Last Stand" in 2006. Plus, that was her sporting full body paint on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2006 – a process that took her 12 hours.

"I happen to know a lot about the subject. This feels organic and I would like a front-row seat to this. Watching the process and the transformation – it's so transformative. It's such a crunch. We're shooting sort of in real time," she says.

The show isn't about nudity. It's about celebrating artistry and the human form, says Romijn. "We've got standards and practices to deal with. They're wearing panties and pasties. We've had sumo wrestlers, which was challenging. They sweat. A lot of has to be sealed up before they move on to the next layer. It's trial and error," she says.

And learning about what can be shown on TV, versus what is verboten: "Women can wear G-strings, but men's butts have to be completely covered. Isn't that weird? Why are women allowed to show their buns but men aren't?"

Romijn recalls playing Mystique as though it was yesterday. And after hearing about the process of transforming into the mutant, we can't blame her.

"My first test was 13 hours. I did not sleep. I had to be actively involved. That was the first test. Then it became a nine-hour paint job. I would try and shoot as long as possible. I'd come at midnight to be ready at 9am and I'd work as long as possible. Let's get as much done as we possibly can. Let's keep working. I was like, 'Can I just sleep in this?' No. It was a union rule and it took two and a half hours to remove it," she says.

Those who think the job was all glam -- well, think again. "We did not have great ventilation on the first movie in my trailer. I have not told this story very often. On the last night, when we finally wrapped, someone brought out tequila shots to celebrate. I did a shot and immediately vomited blue. There was all this blue paint in my stomach. The thing that got me through it was that it was most beautiful costume I had ever seen," she says.

Romijn gets real about most things in her life. Her toned, buff body, for one? That's no happy accident, or the product of a crazy metabolism, which is what many of her peers offer up when asked about staying in shape.

"I work out. It's constant maintenance. It's the boring real answer. It's willpower. It's someone saying, 'You're going to be body-painted.' I work really hard. I do bikram yoga, pilates and the treadmill and the elliptical. I work out five days a week. I watch what I eat. I'm careful. After having my babies, that was a good four years where I wasn't so happy about my body," says Romijn.

And she's equally forthright about motherhood. Yes, she adores her daughters, but she also savors time for herself.

"I don't have a social life in Los Angeles, at all. When I come to New York, I do. I have four childhood friends who live here," says Romijn. "When (my daughters) were about a year old, I thought that I'm starting to lose myself a little bit. I made it a point to leave Los Angeles even for 24 hours to make sure I know who I am. You get so consumed."