How Richard Gadd was transformed from 'Baby Reindeer' into 'a big, scary guy' for his latest role, packing on 40kg of pure muscle with 'prison workouts'
Ryan Gosling drank melted ice cream to put on the pounds in preparation to play George Harvey in The Lovely Bones and Christian Bale subsisted on a diet of cigarettes, whiskey, apples and tin of tuna for his role in The Machinist - actors will go to great lengths to bring a character to life.Now a personal trainer has revealed how Baby Reindeer sar Richard Gadd, 37, got into shape for his latest role.Scottish trainer David Jenkins was tasked with transforming the actor into thuggish 'colossal' ex-prisoner Ruben for his new BBC project Half Man.Working with Jenkins over a period of 14 months, Gadd gained 100lbs (40kg) and built significant muscle mass.Fans of the actor have been taken aback by the 5'11 Scotsman's appearance - when he starred in the semi-autobiographical series Baby Reindeer he weighed just 70kg. To achieve this, Jenkins had Gadd training for 45 minutes to an hour every day, religiously lifting up to 11,000kg per session – even on days where the actor was filming for 11 hours and writing for another four.'He was still writing the last few episodes while he was training,' Jenkins told the Courier.'If they wrapped filming at 6.30pm, he was at the clinic by 7pm. And what he was lifting – nobody lifts like that! Working with David over a period of 14 months, Gadd gained 100lbs and built significant muscle mass, lifting up to 11,000kg per session Richard Gadd previously lost 24kg for Baby Reindeer (right) but packed on 40kg of muscle for his new project, Half Man'He was doing anything from 7,000kg to 11,000kg per night, over hundreds of reps using mainly 40kg weights.'Jenkins believes the key to success is consistency over numbers, so he would adapt the night's workout to the day Gadd had had.'A PA would get in touch with me while he was driving over and say he'd had a hard day on set,' Jenkins recalls.'Or that he had a meeting with the HBO execs straight after so we had to finish up sharp.'Mindset is huge, so I'd scramble to the whiteboard to rub off the plan I had and replace it with something else that would still push him, but that he could achieve when fatigued or in a rush.'We had a 'Days Until Taps Aff' countdown on the board – and he never missed one day.'The A-list trainer - who previously worked with A-lister Chris Pine on the set of Outlaw King on Skye - said that he crafted a specific plan so that Gadd was in the perfect shape for the role.'We see Ruben when he's coming out of prison, and you don't come out of prison with a six-pack, because you can only eat what you're given,' says Jenkins. Key to success of crafting his screen ready physique was the nutritional plan, devised by the trainer Gadd in Netflix hit Baby Reindeer, where he plays a barman stalked by a mentally ill woman'So I knew he couldn't look like Aquaman – but he could be colossal.'Key to success of crafting his screen ready physique was the nutritional plan, devised by the trainer.Instead of calorie counting and strict diets, they had a unique approach to post gym session meals.'Afterwards we'd go for a protein-only curry at the takeaway down the road. No naan, no rice – usually – just loads of tandoori chicken and tandoori lamb,' says David.Jenkins worked on set with Gadd to keep him 'pumped up' between takes, so that the continuity of Ruben's appearance never faltered.'Between each take, we had 10 minutes and two 15kg dumbbells; he'd do shoulder press, upper rowing, and bicep curls.'Then the cameras were rolling, and boom, he's Ruben again.'However the trainer reveals that there was one activity that Gadd was apprehensive about doing.'He said: 'I can't go out for a run, I'm Richard Gadd! I'm the fourth most-Googled person in the world after Trump, Zelensky and Putin!,' says Jenkins.'I said: 'So? You're a big, scary, bearded guy. Put your hoodie on, get down the front of the Clyde, and let's go for a run!''A BBC synopsis for Half Man reads: 'Not related in blood but the closest you can get. One, fierce and loyal.'The other, meek and mild-mannered. Inseparable youth. Brought into each other's lives through death and circumstance, all they have is each other…'But when Ruben turns up at Niall's wedding three decades later, everything seems different.'He is on edge. Shifty. Not acting like himself. And soon, an explosion of violence takes place which catapults us back through their lives, from the eighties to the present day.'Capturing 30 years in the lives of these broken men, Half Man explores brotherhood, violence, and the intense fragility of male relationships.'After all, when things fall apart… it is sometimes the closest relationships which break the hardest.'However, reception of the drama has been mixed. The Daily Mail's Christopher Stevens branded it 'utter dross - rancid schoolboy erotica and repulsive adult masochism crowbarred into a weak story.'
