Dolph Lundgren nearly punched Sylvester Stallone on ‘Expendables’ set
Despite starring together in two different franchises, Dolph Lundgren has come to blows with Sylvester Stallone both on and off screen. During the filming of the Expendables franchise, Lundgren mentioned almost getting physical with Stallone after one too many takes.
Lundgren had first come to know Stallone while starring opposite him in the Rocky franchise. When Lundgren was performing a specific scene, he was being reprimanded by Stallone for not playing it quite right, recalling to Variety, “He was very harsh on me in a scene in The Expendables where he kinda yelled at me in front of the whole crew and had me do about 20 takes on a scene. You know, basically in front of everybody. And there was press there that day too”.
After taking a few minutes to cool off, Lundgren was out for blood, continuing, “I called my wife that time and I basically just told her, ‘If he says one more word, I’m gonna knock him out and fuck this movie, I’m outta here. I’m just gonna punch him out and fucking leave’.”
As the rest of the day played out, Lundgren recalled that most of the crew thought that the vibe wasn’t working, after which Stallone came back and apologised to him. Although that was far from their first spat, Lundgren remained on good terms with Stallone, even appearing in his docu-series The Family Stallone.
Looking back on their friendship, Lundgren still feels there’s a lot of respect between them, saying, “We’ve had a few run-ins over the years, but what can I say, he’s a crazy Italian. I think he knows that I’ve always respected him and loved him, and I think that’s why we’re still friends”.
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