TENSING his muscles as he ripped off his pyjama top, eight-year-old James Crossley dreamed of turning into his superhero idol The Hulk.
And little over a decade later, he had transformed himself into a man-mountain, much like the Marvel character, while appearing in the hit ITV show Gladiators.
Known as Hunter, the York-born star became a pin-up for fans across the country during the Nineties thanks to his Adonis-like figure and flowing, curly blond locks.
James was among the show’s fiercest competitors and was crowned The Ultimate Gladiator after beating co-stars, during the final series in 1999.
Now, following the success of BBC's reboot, the 50-year-old reveals being bullied and feeling like “the weakest in the pack” led him to get ultimate revenge by appearing as a muscle-clad hunk on the original show.
He tells The Sun: “I hung around with a much older group of friends and was bullied by some of the older ones, I was always getting punched because I was by far the youngest.
“I was always at the bottom of the pile if there was a tumble or I’d get my bike taken and people would tie my coat to the back of the bus.
“I was always the butt of the joke and felt like I had to prove myself.
"After watching superheroes, I felt the way to do that was to be bigger and stronger than everybody else.
“I think I always had that motivation, I wanted to kind of build this body so I'd have a shield if you like, a suit of armour to protect myself.”
Raised by a bank worker dad and an artist mum, James was unlike many kids his age due to his obsession with working out.
At 12 years old, he got his first set of weights for Christmas and a year later was training six times a week at a gym that was one-and-a-half miles away.
He believes his fixation with becoming stronger stemmed from bullying - as well as watching the first three Rocky films in one sitting.
James recalls: “It was literally like being brainwashed. I was hypnotised by Rocky, I was amazed by his physique and the underdog rising to the top.
“I was clearly very driven. I was cycling a mile and a half to the gym after school, training for an hour and then cycling back.
“It was a bit of a strange thing and not really normal for my age, I was very young to start at the gym but I was focussed.
SINCE appearing on the show, a number of the Gladiators stars pursued different careers – here we reveal some of the most surprising.
Ace
Warren Furman, 51, is now a devoted Christian and evangelist, who visits schools. It follows him opening up about his battle with steroid addiction.
Cobra
Michael Wilson largely avoided the limelight after appearing on the show. Despite battling multiple injuries from his time on Gladiators, the 58-year-old continues to work as a motivational speaker.
Jet
Diane Youdale, 54, was forced to retire from Gladiators due to injury. She went on the star on TV shows, presents dance shows and train as a psychiatrist.
Lightning
Kim Betts, now 52, runs multiple businesses including a beauty parlour and a fishery. She lives on a farm with her husband and children
Rhino
Mark Smith, 54, landed Hollywood roles including in Batman Begins, Argo and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy as well as voice-over work.
Saracen
Mike Lewis, 60, went on to become a firefighter and works for a brigade in South London. He also appeared on Ninja Warrior in 2015.
Wolf
Mike Van Wijk, 71, moved to New Zealand where he opened a chain of gyms. For a time, he appeared on the Kiwi cage-fighting scene.
Zodiac
Kate Staples, 58, runs adventure boot camps with former GB athlete Daley Thompson.
“I set myself solid goals. I wanted the same size arm and to weigh the same number as my age – so by 14 years old I had a 14-inch arm and was 14 stone.”
James says he was “never a brilliant scholar” but exceeded when it came to physical challenges.
He started entering bodybuilding competitions at 15 and a year later was crowned Mr England Under 17s.
By the age of 19, James caught the attention of producers for Gladiators – who were looking for a new muscle-clad warrior to join their ranks.
“I was in a bodybuilding magazine, which said ‘Is James Crossley the next Tarzan?’" he recalls.
"The team saw it and came to meet me and invited me to an audition."
James says he “trained like a psycho” to ensure he would get a spot on the show and gave up a lucrative job as a printer, which he was newly qualified for after an apprenticeship and three years at college.
I remember Nigel Lythgoe came up to me and said, ‘You’re s***’. I went back to the dressing room and started crying but then became determined to prove him wrong
James Crossley
“It was a really well-paid job, back then in 1992 you could earn £60,000 or £70,000 a year without overtime,” he says.
“It definitely caused a ripple with the family because it was such a good job, but it was soulless 12-hour shifts and I wasn’t massively passionate about it.
“It was a bit of a gamble and a risk because Gladiators had only been on for a year.”
James was originally given the Gladiator name Trident before producers switched it to Hunter and within 10 days of being cast, he was filming the show.
But the transition from competing in the world of bodybuilding to the Gladiators arena was no easy feat for James, who admits he was “useless” during the first series.
He recalls: “I remember Nigel Lythgoe came up to me and said, ‘You’re s***’. I went back to the dressing room and started crying but then became determined to prove him wrong.
“It led to me having my own Rocky montage moment and I started training twice a day for 12 months to make sure I was the best at every event.”
James devised a clever plan to make his workouts more similar to games on the TV show, which ran from 1992 until 2000.
Leaving Gladiators was quite tricky, all of those skills I’d learned like climbing walls, running around in cages and swinging on ropes were useless
James
They included “pushing cars around a car park” to replicate Atlaspheres, tying his feet together and boxing for The Duel and playing badminton and squash to mirror the movements needed for Powerball.
He recalls: “I came back a year later and all of a sudden, I was the quickest on the wall and the hardest in the Duel. It was a massive transformation.
“They were like, ‘What have you done?’ I was like, ‘Well, you said I was s***. Try saying that again’.
“I wanted to be the best at every game and that became the absolute mission for me. It was all about winning and was the only thing that mattered to me. I was like a robot.
“By the end of it, Nigel told me ‘I actually think you’re bionic, we can put you on anything’. It was really him that instigated me to work so much harder. I put everything into it.”
As Hunter became a fiercer foe, he earned a legion of fans and couldn't even catch a train without being mobbed.
He adds: “There was one guy who had my name, Hunter, shaved into the back of his head and then you’d be sent gifts that people had sewn, like a tapestry or a bedspread.”
The demands during and away from the show made the Gladiators a tight family-like unit – but when the cameras weren’t rolling the stars played playful pranks on each other.
James says: “I remember there was a Gladiators’ initiation where they completely covered Trojan in gaffer tape and just dropped him off on the producers’ floor.
“They must have put a couple of rolls around him so that he couldn’t move. He would have had to wait for someone to release him.
“I was lucky, somehow I managed to bypass the initiation. I think it was because I was a bit young.”
He also claims that Warrior - real name Michael Ahearne – used to "put a couple of potatoes down his lycra" because the outfit was so tight-fitting.
When Gladiators came to an end in 2000, James co-produced the show’s South African series before retraining to become an actor.
He says: “It was a bit like being a professional footballer, you have this amazing life and then where do you go from there? I had to throw myself into something else.
“Mentally it was quite tricky, all of those skills I’d learned like climbing walls, running around in cages and swinging on ropes were useless.”
James studied at the London School of Acting before spending eight years with a touring theatre group and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company.
“It was an amazing time but I didn’t like the lifestyle, I had no roots and eventually went back into strength and conditioning,” he says.
James, who has also appeared in 21 pantomimes, briefly was a strong man and set a world record for lifting Scotland's famous Dinnie Stones in 2018.
He held the two boulders, which collectively weigh more than 52 stone, for 34.58 seconds. James's record has since been beaten.
He returned to fitness, working with rugby, hockey and other sports teams, as well as releasing a workout DVD aimed at people in their 40s.
But six years ago, his career took a rather unexpected turn when he became a certified sound therapy practitioner – someone who helps people to relax and release tension with gongs – and now he teaches others.
James says: “Normally gongs are kind of associated with older women or yogi-style women, but I come from it from a different angle, from a musician.
“It’s a bit like going to the gym, if you can learn to relax regularly it completely changes your life. I teach people to help others do that too.
“I’ve seen people release traumas that have been stored in their bodies for years and some have past-life experiences, you couldn’t make up what happens during these gong baths.
“It’s not a normal job and is definitely quite unusual. I went from being a Gladiator and a strongman for 10 years to this. I don’t have a normal nine-to-five, I just have blocks of work here and there.
“What’s funny is that most people don’t even know I was a Gladiator, they are just there for the gong baths.”
Find out more about James's work as a sound healing practitioner here.
