Dolph Lundgren has recently revealed that he almost punched Sylvester Stallone on the set of The Expendables.
The Swedish actor, who has been friends with Stallone for decades and played his nemesis in 1985’s Rocky IV, shared in an upcoming episode of In Depth With Graham Bensinger that he almost got into blows with Stallone.
“He was very harsh on me in a scene in The Expendables, where he kind of yelled at me in front of the whole crew and had me do about 20 takes on a scene,” Lundgren recalled of the Stallone-directed film.
“It was like, ‘My grandmother could do it better than that. What the fuck, what are you doing?’ You know, basically in front of everybody. And there was press there that day too, international press,” he added.
Lundgren explained that after a lunch break, he called his wife to vent. “I basically just told her, ‘If he says one more word, I’m going to knock him out and fuck this movie, I’m out of here. I’m just going to punch him out and fucking leave.’”
The actors didn’t end up getting into a fight as Stallone did approach him to apologize for his actions. “I had a tap on the back, and it was Sly. He was like, ‘Uh, I’m sorry about that. Let’s just do another take and let’s just keep moving on.’”
This is not the first time the two have clashed. “We had some good times and bad times, kind of like family to some degree,” shared Lundgren. He admitted to them having 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.”
In other news, the Swedish actor revealed that he has been secretly battling cancer for eight years. He had a cancerous tumor removed from his kidney in 2015, but more have since been discovered.
Dolph Lundgren is next set to appear in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which is due for release in December.