Who is Chico Salgado, the personal trainer who transforms celebrities’ physiques for roles?

Angélica’s flat stomach at 50, Bruna Marquezine’s energy in the action scenes of “Blue Beetle”, Fabio Assunção’s 30 kg loss for the series “Fim”: all of this has Chico Salgado’s hand. A childhood friend and friend of Bruno Gagliasso, the personal trainer has become a favorite among celebrities and is behind the physical preparation of actors for roles in movies and TV.

Salgado’s career in the artistic world began in 2011, when Gagliasso had a month and a half to lose 15 kg between one role and another on TV. The actor had just finished the soap opera “Passione”, in which he had the approval of Globo to be a little overweight in the role of good vivant Berilo Rondelli. “When you say that to a guy who already has a problem with the scale, you’ve screwed everything up,” jokes Chico.

“I shocked his metabolism. We varied the stimuli: one day, fighting, the next, weight training, the next, running. I had no doubt that it would work out well. Artistic geniuses, like him, work like this: I knew that for the sake of a character, he would do what was needed. If it were up to him, he would just keep stalling,” jokes the personal trainer, who is Titi’s godfather.

When Bruno returned to Estúdios Globo, the publicity was instantaneous. From then on, Chico’s client portfolio only grew: Fernanda Paes Leme, Giovanna Ewbank (who was not yet married to Bruno), Grazi Massafera, Taís Araujo, Carolina Dieckmann, Ingrid Guimarães, Fernanda Torres, Camila Queiroz and Maitê Proença joined the group, just to name a few.

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In addition to taking care of his students’ health, which he considers his life’s mission, Chico has been specializing in the physical preparation of actors for projects that require major physical changes. He is currently preparing Alice Carvalho (Joaninha from “Renascer”) for the second season of “Cangaço Novo”.

“The film or series team comes to me, we set a date, and they ask for what they need for each role: the actor to be thinner, stronger, to gain mass,” he explains. “The actor is a professional who lends his body to art. He becomes a fighter, a painter, a superhero, a terminally ill patient. It’s a lot of dedication,” he says, an admirer of the performing arts — and even had a cameo role as a police officer in “Tropa de Elite.”

One of the transformations that fascinates Chico the most is Daniel de Oliveira’s to play Cazuza in the iconic 2004 film. “I never got to work with him, but it’s impressive. He gives the character a different impression because of his physical appearance,” he praises.

Two years ago, Chico was given the mission of melting 30 kilos of Fabio Assunção to play a 1980s heartthrob in the series “Fim”. “O Andrucha [Waddington, diretor] called me and said: ‘You have a year to lose weight, Fábio’. I asked if Fabio was willing. He said: ‘Yes, he is, he is really excited’. I said: ‘Then let’s go'”, says the personal trainer.

Another recent job was preparing Bruno Gagliasso to play Drauzio Varella’s brother, who died of cancer, in the biopic of the doctor. The challenge was huge. Chico worked with a team of nutritionists and doctors to help the actor lose 20 kg safely. “He followed a very low-calorie diet; some days he ate 800 calories. [o recomendado pela OMS é 2.400]. A bizarre thing, but everything was monitored,” he says.

Even Bruna Marquezine’s Hollywood debut had Chico’s participation. “Bruna was already ready. As it was an action film [Besouro Azul] and she would have some scenes, we just did some maintenance and she arrived in the US prepared”, he says.

The personal trainer has not yet had the mission of making an actor fat, but he remembers the story of his friend Wagner Moura. To play Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series, Wagner gained weight without any control. “He kept eating and eating, and it was bad for him. You have to do this with medical supervision, getting the right calories. He had a hard time losing it later,” he recalls.

During the pandemic, Chico had an epiphany. “My mission in life is to democratize health. The numbers are shocking. We have 100 million Brazilians who do not do any physical activity,” he says. He created a virtual training platform, CS Team. “It is increasingly obvious that physical activity is essential. We are at a level of physiological knowledge that we cannot let up, we cannot waver. I am very proud of all my students, of introducing this habit into their lives,” he says.