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Richard Smedley
prepared Robert De Niro for his role as a bank robber
in Michael Mann's classic 1995 crime thriller Heat - Men's
Fitness
'Character
Building - Star Fitness' -
Dec 2000
The job was to teach the bank robbers
all the techniques that would allow them to look like
real armed robbers. They had to be trained very specifically
for weaponry. They had to be taught everything they did
in the film. So if they did a mobile hit, we had to do
that on the ranges. If they had to fire specific weapons,
then we taught them how to do that realistically. We got
them used to wearing covert weaponry and all the specific
equipment required completely naturally. Everything you
see them doing, down to Val Kilmer blowing the door off
the van, we did for real.
Everyone has problems specific to them. Robert De Niro's
movement with weaponry wasn't quite as fluid as was wanted.
Stylistically it wasn't quite right. So we did quite a
lot of work to get over that. It's important that you
not only learn how to use weapons, but to move well with
them.
I took him away to a gymnastics gym I hired and set up
an assult course where he would be forced to become fluid
in the movement and carriage and drawing and firing of
weapons. He moved through the obstacles until he could
do it in his sleep.
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Julia Ormond-
talking about Richard Smedley in Men’s Fitness
‘Character Building’- Dec 2000
Richard Smedley is a consummate professional.
...He knows his stuff inside out
...I’ve worked with trainers all over the world and
I’ve always come back. I know that he can do for
me what I want to achieve. In him I have a friend who
is emotionally and psychologically supportive
...The fittest I have ever been was training with Richard
for ‘Smilla’s feeling for Snow’
...If eating chocolate cake after every meal makes you
happy then do it, because that is surely what it is all
about. By the same token if your weight makes you unhappy
then do something about it.
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Lydia Slater-Editor
of Sunday Times, Style magazine fitness section
‘Do You Want to look Like Lara Croft?’
Richard Smedley runs Richard Smedley
Training in London. Instead of tedious gym routines, they
construct army style workouts that are simultaneously
exhausting, fun and extremely effective
...They are regulars on film sets and Richard has trained
Crouching Tiger star, Michelle Yeoh, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel
Day- Lewis, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Julia Ormond, Milla
Jovovich ( played the ‘Fifth Element’) and most
recently Cate Blanchett for her unarmed combat scenes
on Charlotte Gray.
...My results from training with them have been astonishing.
Within the first month people were commenting that I looked
thinner. In three months I went down a size in clothes,
lost four inches from my waist and five from my hips and
shifted 18.5 lbs of body fat, while putting on 9lbs of
muscle. I may not yet be able to raid tombs single handedly,
but just getting into Lara’s hot pants is reward
enough.
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Evening Standard
Article- 30 December 1997
‘The Man who put the hunk into Hawkeye’.
Muscle was required. It was time to send for Richard Smedley.
Formerly a Captain in the Parachute Regiment, Smedley’s
CV is now sprinkled with the sweat of megastars
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Daily Express
Article in William Hickey Section- 25 November 1997
‘Bond Muscles in with big new image’
The man responsible for Pierce Brosnans new body in Tomorrow
Never Dies is one Richard Smedley. A no- nonsense former
paratrooper. Smedley added 20 lbs of muscle to his frame
in time for his love scene with Teri Hatcher.
Excerpt from Letter to Richard
Smedley from Pierce Brosnan
‘ Thank you so much for all your hard work during
Tomorrow Never Dies
...
I couldn’t have done it without you... You are the
best trainer I have worked with...
...Looking forward to seeing you on the next one’
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Mens Fitness and
Men’s Health Editor Francis Cottam Writing about
Richard Smedley- Dec 2000 Article Men’s Fitness
‘Let’s Get Personal’
I n the last year or so I have noticed a slow but undeniable
deterioration in my physical condition. I was still training
hard but my waist was thickening and nothing I was doing
in the gym was having any effect. It seemed so unfair.
At 43 I was beginning to think that I would have to lower
my expectations. I didn’t feel happy though thinking
that this was my lot in life from now on. Richard made
an offer to train me for 2 months...
Six weeks on and it is working. I feel focused, highly
motivated and already much, much fitter. My waistline
has shrunk and I can see my stomach muscles again. I am
significantly stronger and firmer. I have more energy,
better tone, increased muscle mass and more stamina. Though
to me it feels like one, this is no miracle. I don’t
think Richard Smedley believes in miracles. He believes
in method...
I have never worked out so hard in my life...
There are no short cuts...
Technique is painstakingly correct...
The Sense of achievement after being encouraged and cajoled
through these workouts was stupendous...
The real revelation was Richards nutritional programme.
The difference between the way I used to eat then and
the way I eat now is the difference between a blunderbuss
and a snipers rifle.
The difference between going
to the gym- however frequently- and being trained by an
expert is a profound one
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GQ Journalist
and co- author of, ‘No More Mr Fat Guy’, Jonathan
Savill, writing about Richard Smedley in GQ magazine after
training with him for three months- April 1995
‘From Zero To Hero’
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When we started this project
in August 1995 I weighed 19 and a half stone.
I was lazy unfit and unhappy. I was a heart attack
waiting to happen. I’m still 42 but three
months later I have a 32 inch waist, which means
I can look in the mirror without shuddering. I
can run for an hour without stopping, and have
reserves of energy to call upon. The weight I
have lost is equivalent to that of my seven year
old son plus three bags of sugar. I am now a very
comfortable 14 and a half stone.
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