Let’s face it, Michael B. Jordan ’s body is one to admire. The actor works incredibly hard to get his body in tip top shape for his movie roles and the person right alongside Jordan for his grueling gym sessions is longtime friend and trainer, Corey Calliet .
As he did for Jordan’s “Creed” and “Blank Panther” roles, Calliet spent countless hours in the gym with the actor helping him prepare for his new action film “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse,” which is out today on Prime Video. Calliet not only trained Jordan for this movie, he too did the workouts right alongside the actor because Calliet also happens to have a role in this action war movie.
To celebrate the release of this new film Barry’s, the original strength and cardio interval fitness workout experience, partnered with Amazon Prime Video for a week of themed classes on their first-ever digital platform, Barry’s At Home.
The intense classes gave a taste of the tough training Jordan and Calliet both did to prep for their roles. HOLA! USA had the chance to speak with the celebrity trainer to talk all things working out and how he feels getting his feet wet in the acting world.
HOLA! USA: How has your busy week ahead of the movie premiere been? Corey Calliet: I’m doing great! This week has kind of been the press roll out for me, so there are a lot of interviews, of course in the midst of training and doing all the other extreme activities I do throughout the weeks. It’s been a really good week.
You’re the man behind Michael B. Jordan’s incredible body, how long have you two been working together? It’s about to be May which means our seventh year anniversary is coming up.
“Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse” is an action-packed film that Jordan plays a Navy SEAL in. What type of workouts did Jordan do to prepare for this film? This time it was more of a HIIT training style and CrossFit type of training and the reason being is CrossFit is made up of some of the strongest and fittest athletes in the world to my knowledge from what I’ve experienced and what I’ve done. We did a lot of HIIT training because we needed the conditioning to be really good. I needed Michael to be in shape because when we did the other movies, we did boxing in the beginning but for the entire movie this time, it was more action than he’s ever done so the workouts were very cardiovascular based and HIIT training with a mixture of weight training. It was very important that we trained this way so when it was time to perform, we can do our very best every time.
How do you figure out what type of workouts to plan for the different roles Jordan takes on? Anytime we have a movie, the goal is to always make him better than the last, so no matter what it is, I’m going to do my science homework and figure out what is it like to train for these particular roles. Of course there was boxing and fighting training and I have a background in both so that was easy. This time, I had no knowledge of shooting guns until we went to New Mexico and trained him for weapon training. And then it was just me understanding, ok if we have to be filming the movie for 12, 13, 14 hours a day, what can I do and what can I create that is going to allow his body to do just that. So I thought ‘what is one of the hardest workouts that I’ve ever done’? I need to put myself through the pain first so I can recognize and be able to understand the pain he’s going through while he’s training. So that’s when I started doing more CrossFit and research on those workouts and I fell in love with it. So those are things we would do on a normal basis, it wasn’t just your regular weight training or bodybuilding style. It was more movement, it was more tactical. Because I knew he was only going to have his shirt on for one scene, so we had to focus on the conditioning of his aerobic exercises. We’re big on how he has to look when doing the movements, his technique, his posture, making sure he’s looking right, so that was important. It was things of that nature to help us give that look that we needed.
You’re also going to be in this film! How did that come about? It’s been a conversation. I did a TV show, “Revenge Body” a couple of years ago with Khloé Kardashian, then I came forward and was in “Creed II.” I do action acting very well and I can act and then it was like, ‘Ok well do you want to be in this movie?’ I said ‘Of course.’ When we went out to New Mexico to do gun training, someone said to me, ‘You must be one of the Marines and I said ‘I might be,’ and he said ‘You move like you were a Navy SEAL like us.’ And it’s just something that came to me and I knew I could deliver it on film and I definitely could look like a Navy SEAL or a Marine. It was cool and I never thought that I would be there. You’ll definitely be seeing me in more action films. I play a cameo style when it comes to Michael, because I am there to support him and be there for him. In the very near, near future you’ll be seeing me getting more into that role of being an action guy in front of the camera.
Did you ever think you would be acting in a film? Honestly, I had no idea. I came to LA to just be one of the top trainers in the world. And it [acting[ kind of fell in my lap. Like I said, being on “Revenge Body” it got me really comfortable on camera and all of these different disciplines such as Muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing, I can do and weapon training was my last one to master. I never thought that this would be happening but you know what, where there’s a window of opportunity, not only am I going to open it, I’m going to go through it and it’s been happening. Being around the industry and seeing I could do it and to have the confidence because you have to have the confidence to do it.
Tell me a bit about why Barry’s and Amazon Prime Video’s partnership works so well? I think Barry’s is amazing. I got a chance to do a class before, a couple of years ago and it wasn’t my go-to because I was bodybuilding at the time, so I was focusing on a ton of just strength training but as the years progressed, it’s become something that I really love. I think the thing about Barry’s and when you think about conditioning and getting in shape for military movements like the things we had to do, it kind of goes hand in hand. What I love about the different types of classes is the conditioning and you have to be very conditioned to be a Navy SEAL which we didn’t really understand that going into the film but it definitely was a surprise that I’m glad we were training a certain kind of way such as the training in these classes to get us prepared to do the film.
