A Gladiators contestant has said one of the stars of the show didn’t speak to his castmates backstage.
Finlay Anderson is taking part in the BBC reboot, and he shared what the Gladiators were like when the cameras weren’t rolling.
Scottish army officer Finlay, who has been a fan of Gladiators since he was a young boy, said there was one Gladiator in particular who “didn’t speak to any of them.”
Opening up on friendships behind-the-scenes, he told The Sun: “We all chatted backstage to the Gladiators, and they’re all really nice and great sportsmen and women.
“And we all stay in touch now and keep in contact which is really cool.
“Apart from Viper – he is the only one who never broke character and I have never heard him speak.”
Finlay continued: “I actually tried to talk to him but it didn’t happen. He was in the zone.”
Gladiators star Viper – real name Quang Luong – has been billed as the resident ‘baddie’ and hasn’t said a word all series in a bid to remain in character.
He is known for his stern stares and lack of words on screen, but fans might be surprised to learn that he carries this on backstage too, and doesn’t engage in conversation with the cast.
But that doesn’t stop him from hanging out with them.
Recently, Viper looked worlds away from his scary character as he enjoyed a night out with his co-stars and posed for photos.
And Finlay says there’s a WhatsApp group too, named the Contender group, where the contestants keep in touch after filming ended last year.
“We’re all still really close which is cool,” Finlay added.
And Finlay, who recently became a dad for the second time to a baby boy, also told The Sun about the training he did for the show.
He cited yoga and pilates as the physical activities he’d do using his wife Lauren’s app, Elevate, in order to keep his core strength and stability up to par.
Finlay shared: “My background in military training helped with functional fitness, but it was also about making the body just as bulletproof as possible, so I used my wife’s methods as she’s trained in pilates, yoga, barre and meditation.
“You do have to train hard but actually Pilates and that ability to have that core strength and stability really helped, and actually, injury prevention is a big part of it as well.
“What really helped me in Gladiators was real physical resilience.”
