HUGH LAURIE has returned as Richard Roper for the second series of The Night Manager and, at 66, remains a lithe, imposing presence on screen. While the three-time Golden Globe winner isn’t typically associated with overt physicality, his sporting background more than holds its own against many of his peers. These are the fitness and wellness approaches Laurie has leaned on throughout his life to stay healthy.
Hugh Laurie’s boxing focus
Boxing has played a key role in Laurie’s training. In 2016, while preparing to play arms dealer Roper, he trained alongside Spanish heavyweight boxer Hovik Keuchkerian, who also appeared in the series as one of Roper’s bodyguards. The goal was simple: add physical credibility to a character described as “the worst man in the world”.
“He is just enormous,” Laurie told The Telegraph of Keuchkerian. “When you see him training and hitting a bag it’s an awesome sight. But I discovered that boxing and piano playing don’t go well together. Not good for the hands.”
Laurie first took up boxing after moving to Los Angeles to play Dr Gregory House in the long-running medical drama House. Despite filming days that could stretch to 16 hours, he still made time for a weekly boxing and strength session.
“It is fascinating,” he said. “I swank around thinking I am a big cheese, but you do not feel like that when you are in the ring with a chap who knows what he is doing.”
Hugh Laurie's rowing background
Laurie’s athletic background extends well beyond boxing. An accomplished rower in his youth, he finished fourth in the coxless pairs at the 1977 Junior World Championships before heading to Cambridge University largely to continue rowing.
“I went there to row. I’ll be blunt with it,” he later admitted. “It’s been ten years, and I think the admissions tutor can take it now, but that’s really what I went for, and anthropology was the most convenient subject to read while spending eight hours a day on the river.”
Laurie went on to compete in the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, which Cambridge lost in one of the tightest finishes in the event’s history. Training was relentless. He rose early for rowing sessions, followed by running, gym work, and more time on the water later in the day.
He no longer rows, with the sport eventually giving way to comedy and acting, but his respect for it hasn’t faded.
“It’s a miserable sport,” he once said. “Absolutely miserable. I will say though, the great thing about it is there’s nothing like winning a rowing race. It’s intense. My theory is that you’re facing backwards, so you’re looking at the people you’re beating, and there’s something very intense about that.”
Hugh Laurie's wellness habits
These days, Laurie’s main passion outside of work is riding motorcycles. For him, it’s less about speed and more about sensation.
“I honestly think it’s more like flying than being on an airplane,” he told Men’s Journal. “When you lean a bike over at a corner, you’re taking on gravity. In an airplane, that sensation comes only for a few moments when you leave the runway. Riding a motorcycle gives you that feeling consistently. There’s just nothing like it.”
If Laurie has one indulgence, it’s a well-made cocktail. Alcohol, he says, wasn’t a major presence for much of his life.
“Alcohol wasn’t a thing for the first half of my life, and I never took a lot of drugs, but I think there’s some biological change that takes place in your early fifties that makes a martini a much more interesting prospect,” he said. “A good martini when the sun goes down has taken on a more prominent role in my life. But I don’t allow myself to get very drunk. I enjoy that sort of gentle breeze, but not a full-on tornado.”
