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Ive been misunderstood, Dolph Lundgren tells me.
Ive been taken for granted.
As he says this, he avoids eye contact.
He fidgets with the recorder on the table between us.
He shifts his weight back and forth in his seat.
He seems eminently vulnerable.
Its not a mode one expects from this mountain of a man.
The 61-year-old is, after all, one of the most prolific and iconic action-movie actors of his generation.
He has more than 80 film credits to his name, largely playing warriors and killers.
He was the Punisher.
He was an Expendable.
In that film, Drago seems cold, bloodthirsty, driven, merciless anything but vulnerable.
Then again, maybe we just didnt get to know Drago well enough.
We certainly didnt get to know Lundgren well enough.
Ever since his turn as Drago cemented him into celluloid history, people have made assumptions about the actor.
They think that hes Russian, that hes dumb, that hes talentless.
In actuality, hes Swedish.
And he has a masters degree in chemical engineering.
As for the talent bit, well, thats in the eye of the beholder.
If he has his way, the Lundgrenaissance will soon be upon us.
And I was like,Oh, shit.
Nonetheless, the boy strove to prove he could succeed in the family business.
Then a chance encounter changed everything.
He eagerly complied, and the two were soon an item.
A very small part, he says.
I wasnt 100 percent sure it was the right decision, but I didnt want to go to MIT.
I knew in my heart that I didnt want to do that for the rest of my life.
In place of that path, a new one appeared, littered with glitter and intoxicants.
InRocky IV, we dont hear much from Lundgren.
Drago, himself, simply towers and glowers.
On the rare occasions when he does speak, the audience perks up and remembers his words.
Lead roles inMasters of the Universe(thats the He-Man movie),The Punisher, andUniversal Soldierfollowed.
Then, in the 90s, the wheels fell off.
Whats more, he was partying too hard and gradually ruining his marriage to fellow Swede Anette Qviberg.
Its called escape behavior.
I was doing crazy physicalities and fighting and stunts and drinking alcohol and having affairs.
Youre trying to escape that trauma, but you cant.
As the 2010s dawned, Lundgren was a classic case of where are they now?
Ever the performer, he achieved an apotheosis bydelivering a TEDx talkin 2015.
The way out is through, Lundgren says.
I had to speak about it publicly.
I couldnt have done this ten years ago, he says.
I had too many hang-ups, too much crazy energy.
Now, he was ready.
Nevertheless, Lundgren was still deeply nervous about returning to Dragos boots.
Just as he had chafed at being underestimated, so too would his Drago.
I know all of those things, he says.
I would use that.
Given that Adonis is being trained by Rocky, Drago cant help but crave revenge through his son.
No pain, no gain.
Perfecting his body is old hat for Lundgren.
Perfecting his tongue, though, was another story.
Thus came intensive Russian-language coaching for him and Munteanu.
That was so tough, Lundgren recalls.
But perhaps the biggest challenge came in dealing with his old sparring partner, Sylvester Stallone.
Hes never really accepted me, I think, as an equal, Lundgren says.
Ive always been a kid to him, yknow?
Its almost like a father figure.
There are some unresolved issues.
(Stallone declined to be interviewed for this article.)
The scenes been changed, Lundgren says.
The original scene, everybody wouldve loved that scene.
But Stallone, he started rewriting that scene a little bit and I didnt like his changes.
The director didnt want to confront him much because hes a 30-year-old guy and Stallone is Stallone.
So I had to confront him.
Lundgren laid out why he thought the changes didnt fit how Drago would talk, and Stallone pushed back.
And I realized that he realized,Whoa, Dolphs grown up.
Finally, he says something typical of Sly, like, Hey, Can we do this fucking scene?
Can we stop talking about it?
Lundgren thinks that comes from the real-life tension in the room.
I could see he was a bit like,Oh, shut your hole.Twenty takes of animosity.
All of that said, Lundgren claims he and Stallone have an equilibrium and an understanding.
Were always good, he says.
Our daughters are friends.
Hes charismatic and hes just very, very special, and hes special in my life.
Thats a father-daughter relationship, and I have a daughter that I love a lot, Lundgren says.
Ive had a lot of strain because of my drinking too much when I got divorced and all that.
I wasnt a really good father for her for a while.
So I had some issues there that I could use.
That said, he says hed love to do a dramatic role on television, if given the chance.
(True Detectiveseason four, mayhap?)
They were a little bit impressed by me, I think, he says.
Because we grew up in Minnesota, all our movies have Polacks, Jews, and Swedes.
Theres always a crazy Swede in our movies.
Hes the most compelling part of the movie, a quiet storm of regret and dedication.
Its weird that that fricking guy has become my alter ego in a strange way.
Oh, shit, they put on the music, Lundgren says, placing his head in his hands.
Its, like, following me.
Do they know youre here?
I dont know, he replies.
Maybe its just meant to be.
