Florian Munteanu is making a huge name for himself in Hollywood. Fresh from playing Viktor Drago in Creed II, he was cast as the villainous Razor Fist in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and will next be seen as the formidable fighter Krieg in Eli Roth's Borderlands adaptation.
The boxer turned actor is a busy man, and has now launched his own ten-week Training Program.
While most of the interview below is dedicated to Florian's role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we kicked things off by learning more about this program and what those who decide to try it out can expect. With this, the Hollywood star is looking to share how he trains for his movie roles, providing insight along with some clips in order to inspire anyone who is looking to get in shape.
Check out what Florian had to tell us about his Training Program below and sign up at his website.
I wanted to talk about your training regime as I know you just launched a special 10-week Training Program. For any of our readers who might be interested in checking that out, could you maybe tell them what they can expect?
What they can expect is that the Training Program is exactly how I train. If people are interested in how I get in shape, how I prepare for my roles, or even before that when I did boxing, this is exactly how I trained. I haven’t left anything out. This is basically 17 years of experience, adding different exercises to my routine [and] leaving other exercises out, so after all those years and with all the experience I’ve gained, I’ve perfected that training routine to the point I would say this is the best way to get in shape. So, if people are interested in getting in shape and know how I train, there you are. It’s more than just a piece of paper or sheet that I’m handing out where you can see, ‘Oh, that’s the exercise.’ No, it’s everything: detailed tutorials and I’m basically training with you because I’m showing you every exercise. There’s audiovisual motivation throughout the whole training routine, especially with scenes from my movies which usually should get you pumped. I feel that motivation is the key if you want to get in shape, so it’s definitely a high-end, high-quality product that we’ve put a lot of work into. We invested a lot so people can expect a lot from their training routines. For everyone who wants to know how I train and how I get in shape, there you go!
It sounds awesome and I've got to say, looking on your website, I was blown away by the before and after photo you posted of yourself showing what you looked like. Is it important to you that people do the same thing and that they get to see how you transformed your own physique?
For sure. That’s the progress and you always want to see your progress. We live in an era now with social media and the internet where it’s super easy to document everything, so why not? That should be motivation and inspiration for yourself so you can see your own progress during that whole path. Those two pictures you saw on the site...I usually don’t get out of shape, but I remember that it was after the hernia surgery I had, so with surgery, you have to take a two month lay off and your shape declines. It took me 10 weeks, which is exactly what I show off in the Program, to get in the shape I am right now. Obviously, you can’t expect to look like me in 10 weeks because I’ve been doing this for 17 years, but everyone has to start somewhere, and I feel like that’s the perfect start. It’s definitely tough and hard, so don’t expect if you get the Program that I’m going easy on you, but it will be worth it. That I can promise you.
Amazing. I can tell it means a lot to you to help people in this way.
Of course. People were always asking me, ‘When will you put your training regime out there? When can we expect to do that?’ Especially now I’ve stepped into the film industry, my roles are very physical, so I feel like people are motivated and inspired by me and the way that I look. We made the decision, especially after Borderlands because that was probably the best shape of my life so far, that we won’t take a break directly after the shoot. Instead, we add three more weeks and finish this training routine. I’m very happy with the product and I’m 100% sure that people will be too.
I can’t wait for people to check it out, and watching Shang-Chi, you’re clearly in amazing shape in that film as well, so I’m guessing your Training Program factored a lot into getting you into that supervillain shape?
Yeah, for sure. I have to admit that the Training Program is really, in my opinion, the perfect mix of building muscle while staying athletic at the same time and getting shredded. For the character of Razor Fist, the shredded look was not really the goal. Our director wanted to create something that looked as massive and as solid as possible. I’m always looking to be very athletic and combine different attributes of sport, but in this case, it was basically just weightlifting. There was no cardio in it and I had to eat a lot. I was weighing the most I have weighed so far in my career! That’s what made the fighting so tough. The more you weigh, you’re carrying that around with you, and your moves get a little bit sloppier, your speed declines, and it’s weird to move with so much weight, but also harder. It always felt like someone was pushing me down like a weight on my shoulder. You have to go with the director’s choices if he wants to create a look; that’s the goal, and I feel like we did a good job on that. I feel like, Razor Fist, when we see him in the movie, he looks massive. He looks solid and like a brick. He’s like a solid wall and that’s what we wanted to create.