Gladiators star Wolf revealed he almost missed out on the hit ITV show after missing the application deadline.
69-year-old Michael Van Wijk made a name for himself starring as The Wolf Man throughout the show’s eight series and arguably became the most iconic gladiator of them all.
Wolf, who was the only gladiator to appear in every episode, exclusively told Daily Star that things nearly turned out very different for him and explained how he landed his signature role.
READ MORE: Gladiators’ Wolf, 69, ‘would return’ to show as he could complete events ‘blindfolded’
He said: “It was different with me. I was in one of my gyms and one of my customers came up to me and said ‘Have you heard of Gladiators?’ and I said I’ve seen the American one late at night sometimes but that’s about all I know.
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
“And he said ‘Well they’ve got an English one coming out and I thought of you because you’re so fit and strong so why don’t you give them a ring?’ So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll give them a ring.’ But I’m very laid back and I procrastinated and I just said I’ll do it next week, I’ll do it the week after because it just wasn’t on my list of priorities.”
The bodybuilder continued: “Then when I did ring them up, they said ‘You’re too late because we’ve closed all the applications but if you’re interested, we’ll send you a contenders one’ and they asked me to send in a picture.”
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
Wolf, who currently resides in New Zealand, revealed that it was a specific picture that changed producers’ minds about his future on the show.
“At the time, I happened to be modelling and acting at the time and I was on the front cover of this computer game called Barbarian,” he explained.
The gym owner added: “So I sent them in the picture of me alongside Maria Whittaker who used to be one of the Page 3 girls from a long time ago and she was holding my leg and had her little skimpy outfit on.”
(Image: Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior video game cover)
The TV icon went on to say: “So I sent that poster then they phoned me up the next day and said ‘We love the picture. You’re really what we’re looking for.’ And I said ‘But I thought it was closed and they said no, we’ll make an exception.
“They then said can you come down because you’re shortlisted to 600 people and we’re going to put you through fitness trials to see who’s going to be chosen as a gladiator.”
Aside from completing the gruelling fitness challenges, Wolf later admitted that his “perceptiveness” also contributed to him landing a place on the show.
(Image: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
“When it got to the trials, I noticed if someone couldn’t do one then they automatically eliminated you because there were so many people there, so I was perceptive,” the former gladiator explained.
“I noticed that a lot of the people after the events were struggling and I could see John Anderson and the producers holding their clipboards and watching them.
“So at the end of an event, I’d look at them and say ‘Oh that was easy, hope the next one a lot harder than that.’ But then I’d go round the corner and struggling to breathe so they couldn’t see me and I’d do that after every event!”
He added: “But I did manage to complete all the trials and the next morning I got a phone call saying you’re in, you’re a Gladiator and your name is going to be Wolf.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
