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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Kyle O'Sullivan

Harry Potter Goyle actor now - cage fighting and barely recognisable transformation

Josh Herdman spent his teenage years doing the bidding of evil Draco Malfoy - but now he's back on our screens in a very different scenario.

At the age of just 13, Josh was cast as Draco's nasty sidekick Gregory Goyle in first Harry Potter film and remained in the role for all seven sequels.

He was originally considered for a very different role as Harry's spoilt cousin Dudley Dursely, but ended up playing the Slytherin badboy who was killed by his own fire spell in the final movie of the franchise.

Josh has previously admitted that he went off the rails in his teenage years following his career success and nearly ruined his career.

"If I’m honest I was a party animal, I was, like many young people are," he explained in February 2018. "I don’t know, it was the people I was hanging around with and you have money.

"It was just what I was doing and I had enough of it so I gave it up and started to focus on my fitness, I quit smoking and I haven’t looked back."

While he didn't fall out of love with acting, he felt like it was "playing the lottery for a living" and decided to broaden his horizons.

Josh Herdman as Gregory Goyle in Harry Potter (Internet Unknown)
Crabbe and Goyle were Draco Malfoy's sidekicks (Warner Bros. Pictures.)

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Needing an outlet for his anxiety, Josh took up martial arts and cage fighting, which has since become invaluable to his health and wellbeing.

"I had enough of it so I decided I was going to get fit and I knew I needed something to focus on and martial arts did change my life.

"You need a discipline, you need a tenacity, you need drive to keep at it. When you start you’re getting hammered, you are a novice.

"That is what a lot of people who start martial arts can’t get through and they don’t like it but it was exactly what I needed and it taught me a discipline, which I needed at the time, and a focus, it changed everything for me."

Josh has transformed his body since starting MMA and became almost unreognisable with his ripped body and shaved head.

"I was never fat or anything but before I started martial arts I was smoking and you feel like you can’t breathe," he said.

"You just generally feel much better in yourself. I feel happy, I can go and run ten miles.

Josh became an MMA fighter (Internet Unknown)

"It’s great looking good and the transformation is really cool. You don’t do it just for that, that’s like an added bonus. It’s more for your mental well-being."

The actor made his amateur debut as an MMA fighter in April 2016, beating Polish opponent Janusz Walachowski at the City Pavillion in Romford, east London.

Speaking about his experience, he said: "I’ve been training traditional Japanese jujitsu for nearly five years and hold a shodan black belt.

"It’s raw, exciting and unpredictable. I find it more interesting than boxing although I appreciate the beauty and art in boxing. It also made sense to move onto MMA because of my jujitsu training."

But Josh did not fall out of love with acting and realised he could be passionate about playing characters and his sport interests.

In a bid to avoid being typecast, Josh starred in a thriller called Piggy in 2012, ITV crime drama called Marcella in 2018 and as Righteous in the 2018 Robin Hood film.

Josh was also knocked unconscious in a motorbike accident with his father back in 2015 when they skidded on oil and had to be taken to hospital.

Josh said martial arts changed his life (PA)

However, Josh and dad Martin faced a wait of longer than an hour for an ambulance to arrive after the accident earlier this month.

Speaking to the Richmond and Twickenham Times, Martin said: "It was quite a nasty accident, I thought I had broken my shoulder and my son thought he broke his leg and his hand.

"We were left sat waiting on the side of the road with police for about an hour-and-a-half before the ambulance arrived.

"One ambulance going past even stopped to ask what had happened but they either had someone in the back or were on their way to another call. We had both been knocked unconscious by the accident and we couldn't believe it."

The father-and-son pair were eventually collected and taken to West Middlesex University Hospital for treatment, with Martin left with a torn ligament on his ankle and bloody elbow injury.

Now Josh will be competing in brand new ITV series The Games, which sees 12 super-fit celebrities battling it out in a sporting spectacular event across a week of live programmes.

The familiar faces have undergone weeks of intensive training ready to go head-to-head in a range of sporting challenges in the athletics arena, the swimming pool, gymnasium and velodrome.

Speaking ahead of the first live show, Josh said: "I love a challenge and I'm really competitive. I always want to learn new stuff and we are being taught by the best coaches and teachers.

"It will be a fantastic life experience, learning new things, having a challenge and competition, so it ticks all the boxes for me."

All have been pulled out of their comfort zones to be coached as athletes, swimmers and cyclists, to compete in the hope of coming top of the medals table and being crowned the winner of the competition

As well as live coverage of the events, each episode will feature the celebrities' preparation as they’re taught the sports from scratch by some of the UK’s top coaches

"The event I'm most looking forward to is the canoe slalom. I've never done it and it's so alien to me. Iimagine it will be like riding a motorbike, but I don't know how accurate that will be, we'll see," says Josh.

"I’m least confident in the diving. I don't like jumping off things. I'm not scared of heights, I like flying, as long as I know I'm safe.

"But I don't like throwing myself off things, I'm not great with that. So that's what I'm least looking forward to. And the swimming. I've never been a strong swimmer."

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