They really don’t make movie hard men like they used to. We already knew Stallone was a tough guy, but he just casually tossed out the news he almost died filming Rocky IV. Lundgren’s Ivan Drago has become an iconic movie villain, but it’s not just audiences who hated him. Stallone also confessed he loathed the actor during a ceremony in his honour at the Cannes Film Festival this week.
Stallone was being honoured at the prestigious festival with a retrospective of his work, before a preview of the upcoming Rambo V; Last Blood.
He told the shocked audience about one terrif=ying fight sequence with Lundgren: “He hit me so hard he almost stopped my heart.
“I told him, ‘Why don’t we just do it? Just try to knock me out. Really cut loose as hard as you can.’ That was a really stupid thing to say.
“Next thing I know, I’m on a low-altitude plane to the emergency room, and I’m in intensive care for four days. And there are all these nuns around.”
What is extraordinary is that Lundgren wasn’t the only Rocky star to hospitalise Stallone. Read the shocking account of what happened with Stallone and Hulk Hogan here.
The legendary action icon also revealed his violent first reaction when he met his Swedish co-star on Rocky IV.
Stallone said: “I had to find a superhuman being as an opponent, someone who would be overwhelming… And then Dolph Lundgren walked in, and I hated him immediately.”
Even Stallone himself realised his reaction was a little harsh and he tried to figure out why.
Stallone added: “Oh, that’s right, he’s perfect … This is what I would imagine they would create as an athlete — someone who is literally perfect. Indestructible. Shoulders, calves, forearms, giant butt, neck, back, everything.”
‘Don’t hate me because I’m perfect’, just took on a rather more macho meaning…
