Dolph Lundgren on ‘The Expendables’

It must feel like 1985 again for action star Dolph Lundgren. Not since his breakout performance opposite Sylvester Stallone in ROCKY IV has he enjoyed the level of popularity he is experiencing now for his upcoming role in Stallone’s highly anticipated action movie THE EXPENDABLES. Lundgren was recently interviewed by MovieWeb where he talked about the film, his “crazy” role in it and working with Stallone again. He also touched on his latest film release, COMMAND PERFORMANCE, and addressed the question of whether or not he thinks male stars are too wimpy today.

Regarding bringing humor into his role as “Jenson” in COMMAND PERFORMANCE, Lundgren said he didn’t plan for that initially but it came out during the scriptwriting phase. Stallone challenged him to bring even more humor into his role in THE EXPENDABLES. “Stallone wrote this great character for me. He’s crazy but funny in a comedic way. He’s a good guy and a bad guy at the same time,” said Lundgren. “Stallone really pushed me to get those comedic moments to work. It’s something that I hadn’t really ever done before. It was hard for me, especially with Stallone directing. And we have all of these other guys there. Stallone is a pretty tough director. You don’t mess with him. But those scenes certainly proved that comedy in these types of films is very important.”

Lundgren talked about the level of violence audiences can expect in Stallone’s film. “THE EXPENDABLES is violent, but it’s not as violent as RAMBO. It’s funnier. It has a little more humor. There are some moments where guys get blown across the room. They get stabbed and shot, and shit like that. But it’s not as bad as RAMBO. The tone is a little bit more entertaining.”

In playing opposite Stallone, Lundgren suggested that the two strike a strong visual contrast that plays well with audiences. “On film, there is a certain thing between us. We have a great screen presence together. He is Italian and dark. I am the blonde Nordic type. When we are together on screen, it looks very good when they cut back and forth between us. I realized that when I saw THE EXPENDABLES just on the monitors, when we were filming.”

“We have two or three scenes together. Those are my favorites. It’s so old school. It’s a confrontation scene between two men. It’s real, character-driven material. Stallone writes really well. I was very pleased to make that come alive on screen. I think people are going to really dig it,” said Lundgren in response to a question about his favorite scene.

Source: MovieWeb