Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren first crossed paths on Rocky IV, with the former picking the latter to play Ivan Drago because he emanated the “flawless” quality the character needed to have. While working together on that movie resulted in the two of them forming a friendship, they didn’t team back up professionally until the Expendables franchise launched in 2010, which Lundgren was keen to join. However, the Gunner Jensen actor recently recalled a time when he wanted to punch Stallone while doing the first Expendables movie.
While appearing on In Depth With Graham Bensinger (via Variety), Dolph Lundgren noted how he and Sylvester Stallone have had “some good times and bad times, kinda like family to some degree,” then brought up when Sylvester Stallone was “very harsh” during a portion of The Expendables’ production. Along with playing Ross, Stallone directed the first movie, and at one point he “kinda yelled” at Lundgren in front of the crew, made him “do about 20 takes” one one scene and criticized his performance at that moment. Lundgren then said:
