“I hated him”: Sylvester Stallone’s Obsession With Dolph Lundgren Bordered on a Love-Hate Relationship
Sylvester Stallone is regarded as one of the most skilled actors, writers, and directors in the industry. He is one of the two actors in the entertainment industry who has starred in box office No. 1 movies for six consecutive decades. I
Famously known for not only portraying but also co-writing Rocky Balboa for the Rocky franchise. The commercial and critical success of the Rocky movies gained Stallone the boost his career needed along with an historic Academy Award nomination.
He became the third actor in history to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. Ardent fans of Rocky might know the love-hate relationship Sylvester Stallone has with fellow co-star Dolph Lundgren. So let’s explore more on why Sly did not like Lundgren.
Sylvester Stallone explains why he ‘hated’ Dolph Lundgren
Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren appeared together in 1985’s Rocky IV which was the fourth installment in the Rocky film franchise. The movie recounts how Rocky Balboa confronts Ivan Drago played by Lundgren who is a Soviet boxer responsible for a personal tragedy in Balboa’s life.
The movie upon its release received mixed reviews from the critics as well as the audience but praised Ivan Drago’s villainous appearance. Stallone directed the movie, which was produced by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff. During an interaction with An Experience With’s Jennie Powell, Stallone was asked about how he came to finalize Dolph Lundgren for Rocky IV. He said,
“Do you know why I hired Dolph? He walked into the room and I hated him. I thought give me a break. This guy has jumped the evolution scale by about a thousand years, he’s 6’6”, has hair that one needs a lawnmower to cut, cheekbones that look like Harley, lips that they’re so big that forget if he flew over ten thousand feet they would explore.”
Stallone added,
“He’s a genius. He’s a physicist, some kind of chemical engineer but MIT graduate, full bright scholar and he has blue eyes. If I hate him, and I am somewhat normal so all my other fellow brother will loathe him too.”
The actor said he wanted to hire someone big for the part but when Dolph Lundgren walked in, he could only think that Lundgren was not a human but a robot. This eventually changed the whole movie for them as Stallone felt that Dolph was the right one for the part of Ivan Drago.
Dolph Lundgren ‘almost punched’ Sylvester Stallone on The Expendables
Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren reunited for The Expendables in 2010 which Stallone directed but filming that movie was not a smooth sail for Lundgren. In an interview with In Depth With Graham Besinger, Lundgren said via Variety,
“We had some good times and bad times, kind like family to some degrees. He was very harsh on me in a scene in The Expendables, where he kind of yelled at me in front of the whole crew and had do about 20 takes on a scene.”
He continued to share that at the time, it was their press day and the international press was also there. During the lunch break, Lundgren said he was upset, kind of in tears, and then called up his wife to tell her that if Stallone said one more word to him, he’d walk out of the movie after punching him. But Sly eventually came to apologize to the actor.
Lundgren noted,
“What can I say, he’s a crazy Italian. I think he knows that I’ve respected him and loved him and I think that’s why we’re still friends.”
However, last year, Stallone called out Lundgren in regards to the spinoff movie based on his character from Rocky IV titled, Drago. He was upset because he said the producers were picking clean the bones of the character he created without even confronting him.
Lundgren later clarified on social media that there was no approved script, deals, director, or the fact that he was personally under the impression that Sly was one of the producers or maybe star in the movie.
