Sylvester Stallone admitted that he hated Dolph Lundgren after he first saw him. The Rocky Balboa character had plenty of reason to hate Dolph after he killed his friend Apollo Creed in Rocky IV while playing Ivan Drago. But Stallone admitted that he hated the Swede in real life because his body was too perfect.
Of course, they’re great friends now, and have since worked together on The Expendables movies as well as Creed 2, and Stallone has revealed that a TV show called The Internationale is in the works. However, they didn’t get off to a good start because Stallone was intimidated when he first saw the muscular Dolph. “Let me see if I can relate to you…
I wanted in Rocky IV, I really wanted a big, terrible evil guy that looked like a primitive, and I couldn’t find him,” Stallone told host Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Starring . Jimmy Fallon.
“I found giant wrestlers and football players, and then suddenly the doors open, smoke comes in, there is light, the hairline continues and broad shoulders. Everything is perfect. Even his calves showed through his clothes. He was muscular.
“He was like a real Terminator, and I say:” I hate this guy. He’s just too perfect, too good-looking. And if I hate him, I’m sure the world will hate him. He’s not really like that, but he looks like something that’s a thousand years in the future.
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This is not the guy you see waiting at your table.” The two action stars have some great history together and have helped each other’s success but there’s no telling how all of those movies would have turned out had Lundgren been rejected just because he intimidated Stallone.
Lundgren, though, isn’t the first star to get on The Italian Stallion’s bad side before becoming a friend. He had quite the notable feud with Arnold Schwarzenegger during the 80s and 90s that started when he threw a bowl of flowers at the Austrian during the 1977 Golden Globe Awards. As it turns out, they’ve blossomed into great pals too.
About Rocky IV:
Rocky IV premiered in Los Angeles on November 21, 1985, and was theatrically released in the United States by MGM/UA on November 27. The film received mixed reviews, with criticism for its predictable screenplay and praise for Drago’s credibility as a villain. Scholars note that Drago’s ultimate defeat and the Soviet crowd’s embrace of Rocky represented the crumbling of the Soviet Union, while others criticize the film as propaganda through its Cold War. The film was a box office success, grossing $300 million worldwide, becoming the highest grossing film in the franchise and the third highest grossing film of 1985 domestically and the second highest grossing film worldwide. Critical reception of the film became more favorable in the years later, with praise for the training montages. The film has been considered an icon of 1980s pop culture. In 2021, a director’s cut was released with the title Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago, receiving positive reviews from critics. The sequel, Rocky V, was released in 1990.RELATED:
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