Investigating Robert Davi’s Fitness Profile
I knew that Robert Davi loved horseback riding and motorcycling and had a passion for boxing and kicking back with a cigar. What I didn’t know was that the co-star of NBC’s “Profiler,” an hourlong crime drama on Saturday nights, has a singing voice--opera, no less.
During our phone interview, I asked Davi, who’s married and has two children, about how he was “discovered.”
Question: Is it true that you were overheard singing when you were in the eighth grade?
Answer: Oh, yeah. I was singing in the shower room after football practice, and a nun in the hallway heard me and wanted to bring me into what they called the glee club. My mom convinced me, and I tried out and there were all these pretty girls in this glee club.
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Q: What got you into horseback riding?
A: I did this western, 1979 or ‘80, and three weeks before we started shooting, I worked with a wrangler on horsemanship and a guy who was a quick-draw artist. They taught me a lot of horse stuff and I kept up with that.
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Q: What else keeps you active?
A: Well, I do the motorcycles every weekend and sometimes during the week, weather permitting. I play a little bit of tennis. I usually do an hour on the treadmill five days a week. That’s when I get rid of all the magazines or watch some news shows. I do about 45 minutes of free-weight training. What I like is the boxing, which I do two or three times a week.
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Q: Are you set up at home for that?
A: I have a setup here at the house--a heavy bag mounted into cement and in my backyard I have the mitts and I do combinations with the trainer. And then when I want to go spar, I go to one of the gyms or a boxing gym downtown. But you know, no matter how hard you work out, 90% of this is diet.
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Q: Do you diet?
A: It’s a perpetual diet. I mean, I just love food, you know, and then all of a sudden I’ll think--all right, this is it--fruit.
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Q: What else besides fruit?
A: Dannon Light yogurt, lemon flavored. Then I’ll have an espresso. I might have Raisin Bran with nonfat milk or egg whites with a piece of rye toast. Lunch will be a scoop of tuna fish, very dry, not mayonnaise-y, or a piece of fish or chicken, or maybe I’ll just continue on with the fruit. It depends. And the same thing for dinner basically. On my good days I have no starch.
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Q: How do you do that?
A: It’s impossible. I mean, I love pasta. I love bread and butter. I love a bagel with butter or Italian bread with some nice cheese and salami and, you know . . . the bad days are bad.
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Q: Any dessert on those bad days?
A: Give me the chocolate mint chip ice cream. The other thing I love is a good cannoli.
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Q: What do you usually drink throughout the day?
A: Water, sometimes Diet Coke, juice drinks. I love a great red wine once in a while.
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Q: The craft service table at work--that never gets you?
A: Oh, sure it does, on the days that I’m weak. You try to portion it out so you don’t do too much damage. Some days you say, “Let me stay away from this damn thing.”
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Q: I know you enjoy a cigar every now and then, right?
A: Oh, all the time. I love cigars. That’s one of my big passions.
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Q: You do the whole ritual with the brandy snifter?
A: Oh, yeah. You do the whole ritual. It’s part of the relaxation, the enjoyment. I’m a member of the Grand Havana Room, and I go there sometimes and I do that with my buddies.
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Q: Anything else you want to say or add? Now’s your chance.
A: There’s not much else. I mean, there’s tons of stuff if you want to talk about the tax system; that’s another story, you know. Then I could go on for hours.
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Guest Workout runs Mondays in Health.