Following his graduation from the rugged training of the
French Special Forces (similar to the U.S. Navy SEALS), former
soldier-turned-action star Olivier Gruner applied the skills he had
developed while in uniform both to an extensive list of dynamic screen roles
and the intense preparation for the look and the moves each one has required
along the way.
Gruner joined his country's elite Special Forces Commando
Marines when he was only 17 years old. "They taught us to never give up, no
matter what," he recalls. "They put us through intense training courses;
there's a lot of selection - only one in a thousand guys makes it," he
observed at the end of the Nineties when we caught up with him about his
career.
Using Combat Skills to Break Through into Screen Career
During his two years of commando service, Gruner acquired
a formal knowledge of martial arts and hand-to-hand combat. "It's easy to
have a gun and just to shoot people," he points out. "I was more impressed
with what you could do with your bare hands." Early on, physical training
follows a fairly conventional routine for the French servicemen: "Running,
back-packing, push-ups, rope work, martial arts," he recalls as all part of
the regimen. Soon however, the conditioning turns extreme as each soldier
must develop the ability to handle both the unfamiliar and the near
impossible.
After completing his military service, Gruner continued
to pursue more training in the martial arts, first in the south of France
for a year, before moving on to Switzerland. Then he returned to his
homeland once again to study kickboxing. His interest finally brought him to
the States during the early Eighties. With his existing martial arts
experience, he wanted to also learn boxing and combine the two skills to
become strong kickboxer.
Making the Transformation to Onscreen Action
His dedication eventually paid off when he twice won his
country's national kickboxing championships by the mid-Eighties. By this
time he was also intent on building a career in the world of action movies –
a journey that began with a kickboxing poster he had on display at the
Cannes Film Festival in 1989. It was seen by a film producer who arranged a
casting meeting for Gruner in Los Angeles. Gruner was soon given the lead
role in a low-budget, nonstop action movie called Angel Town, set on the
rough side of L.A. It went over well with martial arts moviegoers world-wide
and earned him an extended contract with the film's producers. His second
appearance came in the futuristic thriller, Nemesis, playing a part-human,
part-cybersynthetic L.A.P.D. agent.
Gruner's screen roles in the years since have usually
required him to demonstrate a variety of physical skills, and to be in peak
condition. Following Nemesis, he took on another futuristic role in
Automatic, as a slightly defective prototype cyborg. Next, he learned to
ride English saddle as a French cavalry officer in Savate, an historical
adventure drama set in the American Southwest.
These days, as an established action star Gruner remains
as dedicated to his training regimen as in his earlier days in America. He
likes to drive over to Venice to train six days a week whenever he is at
home – a routine that might sound easy and fun, but is actually grueling as
far as the demands he puts on both his physical and mental endurance levels
to achieve the optimum look and fitness conditioning for an upcoming screen
role.
One past role, for instance, was the lead character of a
backwoodsman in the sci-fi thriller Savage. His training for this began at
dawn, with 40 minutes on the life cycle or treadmill. Then he would let his
trainer take over, pushing him through another two hours of chest and
triceps training on Mondays; legs, calves and abs on Tuesdays; back and
biceps on Thursdays; and shoulders and lower body on Fridays.
Deriving the Maximum Results from Balanced Training
For maximum benefits, Gruner maintains total
concentration during both the extension and contraction of each weight
movement. "We go to failure of the muscle. My trainer has me work both the
positive and the negative. For instance, when you perform curls, make sure
your biceps are contracted both on the way up and on the way down. This
makes it harder because you don't have time to relax. If you do 10 reps on
the first set in this fashion, you're going to make the muscle feel like you
performed 20 because you're making sure that the negative movement is still
contracting the muscle." On his days away from the weights he likes to do
cardio – taking advantage of the diversity of the southern California
landscape: "I do some running and sometimes hiking just to relax. I also
kayak and I go skiing."
Having put himself through the most demanding preparation
for multiple action roles, Olivier Gruner has become a firm believer in what
can be achieved by following a routine built on stamina and self-discipline.
"It's amazing what you can do with the right training and
understanding of what you're going to do, with the food you put inside your
body and the changes that you're able to make from that," he concludes. "If
somebody tells you that you can't do it, don't believe them. If you follow
what your nutritionist or trainer tells you to do, then you will achieve
results, no matter what - and without taking any drugs, either."