Richard Sandrak began to go to the gym almost before he walked in principle: his father, who moved from Ukraine to the United States, dreamed of making a new Schwarzenegger from the boy. For many years, father, mother, coaches and managers tried to make a new movie star from a teenager, but as a result, the grown-up little Hercules was not at all where his parents would like. "Lenta.ru" tells the story of a young bodybuilder.
Kid-strong
Richard Sandrak was born in a Ukrainian village in April 1992, but he moved to the United States with his parents two years ago. His father Pavel was a professional taekwondo player, and Elena's mother participated in competitions in fitness aerobics. They dreamed of Hollywood glory and set out to grow a new Schwarzenegger from the child. Richard's training began almost from infancy: already in two months, Pavel did with his son stretching exercises for the songs of Gloria Estefan.
As soon as the child began to walk, his father added martial arts to easy training and took his son to the gym. Realizing that the child is making progress, Pavel Sandrak moved a family from less prestigious Pennsylvania to California, closer to Hollywood. There, they met with coach Frank Jardine, who saw the potential in the boy and promised to make a star out of him. At the first meeting with the coach, the father asked Richard to show what he is capable of. The boy jumped and made three kicks before he landed.
Soon Richard was already playing the pseudonym "Little Hercules" in the most famous bodybuilding shows in America: "Mr. Olympia", "Night of Champions", "Mr. USA", "Emerald Cup", "Arnold Classic" and many others. Sandrak became famous overnight and for some time did not leave the covers of magazines and TV screens. At the age of eight, he could press a weight of 95 kilograms from his chest, three times his own and received the title "The strongest boy in the world." Little Richard reminded not a real boy, but a video game or action movie character: in addition to the impressive muscles, the boy had a black karate belt and an ideal stretch. According to the father, in his body was only one percent fat, which, however, is considered extremely unhealthy.
However, for Sandrack's fame there were grueling training and a complicated relationship with his father. And if for the time being he managed to hide it from the journalists who besieged him, then in 2004, when the boy was 11 years old, the tale ended: Pavel Sandraka was imprisoned for domestic violence - he broke his wife's wrist and nose. Police secretly summoned Richard and asked to drive up to the house with the sirens turned off - he did not know how his father would react to the appearance of policemen.
After this, both the child and his coach were changed. Jardine began to tell reporters about the brutal methods of educating Richard: supposedly the boy trained six or even seven hours a day, did a thousand twists in one approach and did not go to school, taking the lessons of a home tutor. Up to ten years the boy was not allowed to communicate with other children, for the slightest fault they forced to squat 300 times and press 600 times and feed only with white beans. The fact that he had kept silent about all this before, the coach explained that the older Sandrak threatened to kill him.
First pizza and film screen
After the father was put in prison, Richard stopped talking to him and for a while gave up training. She and her mother moved to a small town in Santa Clarita, but Elena left no hope of turning her son into a star and found a manager named Marco Garcia, who got his roles in the movies for him, communicated with journalists and literally lived with his family Sandrakov - in the same house . Richard's mother also restored contacts with Jardine, who again began to deal with the 15-year-old boy.
We can not say that training was very popular for young talents, but they did not arouse disgust either: Richard treated them as necessary work. He trained for an hour and a half five times a week and sat on a sports diet that seemed to him a paradise after a strict menu of white beans. However, the schedule of training the boy now observed only before the shooting. With the advent of the manager, his life in general changed dramatically: Richard found out what the taste of pizza was like, and sometimes he could sit around like a teenager all day.
Elena Sandrak talked with journalists with caution: she denied that her husband scoffed at Richard, about his relationship with her husband refused to speak in principle. And although she admitted that the methods of educating Paul caused her anxiety, insisted that his son was never forced to do anything - allegedly the child himself began to engage in the gym, pull barbells and dumbbells.
Under the close supervision of the manager, Richard confirmed the mother's version: "I was never forced to train or do anything else against my will. My parents always practiced, I just wanted to study with them. It was my choice. I grew up with dumbbells in my hands. I was not forced, we never had quarrels about this. " Richard insisted that he did not consider the father's measures too cruel: yes, he slept on the floor, but now he has the perfect posture. And the journalists, he said, "made a big blow out of it that they were torturing me." On the question of reporters whom he considers his hero, the boy answered confidently: his parents. However, after the manager's remarks, he stipulated that only the mother had in mind.
Garcia not only helped the teenager in communication with reporters, but also produced the 3D film "The Adventures of Little Hercules" with Richard Sandrack in the title role and with the participation of the wrestler Hulk Hogan. The manager also planned to shoot the boy in several martial arts films ("Like" Karate Patsan, but with the addition of hip-hop, "Garcia announced), but Hercules did not like the viewers so much that they had to leave ambitious dreams. Two years later, Richard appeared in yet another film, but was also extremely coldly received by the public. The youngster's film career ended ingloriously: he has since appeared on the screens only in commercials devoted to the danger of adolescent obesity and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle.
From stuntmen to quantum physics
The last time the journalists paid attention to the little Hercules in 2015. By the age of 23, Richard Sandrack was completely disillusioned with bodybuilding, exercising in the gym and acting career. To life a fairly replenished young man earned a stunt: he worked in the show Waterworld in the Los Angeles park Universal Studios. During the day he was fired several times, dropped from the tower into the water and shot through through the cannon in front of the amazed public.
Richard is proud of his past and does not consider it necessary to hide it. He is still confident (or wants to show it) that in his life there was nothing special: not all talented children managed to become famous, becoming adults. To keep fit, he rides a skateboard, runs up the stairs and pulls himself up. He admits that he dreams of doing quantum physics and working as an engineer at NASA, and believes that he is fully capable of this.