NO wimpy celebrity fitness gurus for Hilary Swank.
When she was training to play a boxer in the upcoming “Million Dollar Baby,” Swank earned her gloves the hard way – by taking it on the chin day after day at Gleason’s, the legendary, sweat-soaked gym under the Manhattan Bridge.
When Swank first turned up at Gleason’s – the oldest active boxing gym in the country, and home to hardcore boxers like Muhammad Ali, Riddick Bowe, Mike Tyson and Zab Judah – she looked “like a worm,” recalls her trainer, Hector “Panama” Roca. “She was very skinny.”
To put muscle on her 108-pound frame, Roca started her out jumping rope, doing push-ups and sit-ups, and punching the bag. After a month and a half, her back was as chiseled as a Greek statue’s.
Five mornings a week for four months, the 30-year-old actress trekked from her four-story Village brownstone to the no-frills gym, where the chipped red walls look as beat up as the regular customers.
Swank was a “hard worker,” says the soft-eyed, weather-faced Roca, 63, a former Olympic cyclist for Panama and trainer of 17 world boxing champions, including Arturo Gatti and Michael Olajide, as well as “Girlfight” star Michelle Rodriguez.
But sometimes the intense sessions took their toll.
“She started crying when I pushed her,” says Roca. “I said, ‘You do this. You don’t do that.’
“I said, ‘Look, if you want to cry, look for another trainer.’ She said, ‘No, no, sorry. It’s me.’ “
Roca, unfazed by working with an Oscar winner, was unapologetic about causing waterworks.
“I made her cry to learn,” he says. “A lot of business guys come in, they want to pay and that’s it. I want them to do it the right way. They can hit it hard, but if they’re not hitting it right, I don’t like it. That’s the way it works.”
That hard-nosed attitude was perfect discipline for Swank’s role as Maggie Fitzgerald, a 32-year-old, strong-willed waitress who wants reluctant veteran fighter Frankie Dunn (played by Clint Eastwood) to train her for a boxing match, where the prize is a million dollars.
“I’m not the type of guy to go to the movies, but I more than liked it [the movie],” says Roca, who attended a recent preview screening.
“This is not only boxing, it’s part of life and where you come from.”
Maggie’s willingness to sacrifice everything to pursue her dream also won kudos from him.
“She saves pennies to buy gloves, she eats leftovers from people,” he marvels.
“When someone leaves a piece of meat at the restaurant where she works, she takes it home and tells her boss it’s for her dog.”
His pride in his student Swank is evident in the prominent display in his office of a signed photo of the two of them, which reads:
“Here’s to ‘Million Dollar Baby’ and to the best friend there is. With love and respect, Hilary.”
He’s not her only fan at Gleason’s: Her sparring partner, Maureen “Mo” Shea, a 23-year-old aspiring pro boxer who got in the ring with Swank, says the actress was no featherweight.
“Hilary was tough. I had to really block myself because her body shots were phenomenal,” she says.
“And her left hook to the body . . . I had to protect myself.”
Shea expected Swank to be a diva, but instead found her to be a committed athlete.
“Hector came in, gave her directions like any other fighter and treated her like he would treat any other fighter. She took it like a woman, like a fighter,” she says.
“You’d never think an actress coming in here would be able to handle the pressure that was put on her, the discipline that she had to have.
“She worked very hard and she was pushed to her limits and she shined right through. She didn’t stop. She didn’t give up. She didn’t quit. They say Hollywood is a plastic world. She definitely does not come from that.”