INTERVIEWS

[Jox]

All these Comic-Con "interviews" are all pretty stupid. WTF was that?!

[Jox]

In the French show "NPA Cinéma", Canal+, special Cannes 2001
(where HIDDEN AGENDA was screened at the film market)

"La plus belle aberration du cinéma est que quelqu'un puisse chercher la bagarre à Dolph."
"C'est un des plus beaux exemples des aberrations cinématographiques que le public accepte, et à ce titre je trouve que Dolph Lundgren est un véritable visionnaire du cinéma"
- Benoît Peolvoorde

("The most beautiful aberration of cinema is that someone/anyone can provoke Dolph into a fight."
"It's one of the most beautiful exemples of the cinematographic aberrations that audiences accept and therefore I think Dolph Lundgren is a true visionaries of cinema"
- Benoît Peolvoorde)

[Jox]

'Expendables 3' Star Wesley Snipes on His Return to Hollywood
http://www.etonline.com/movies/148899_e ... index.html

[Jox]

http://www.news.nom.co/kellan-lutz-biti ... 3804-news/

The Most Intriguing Actors, Writers, and Directors at Comic-Con This Year
http://www.wired.com/2014/07/comic-con- ... id-1320731

Dolph Lundgren, actor/blast from the past

Why you know him: He's reprising his role as Gunner Jensen in this month's The Expendables 3

On which is the superior generation of Expendables between the rookies and the veterans: "Well, it's us."

On whether or not new Expendables get hazed: "I think there is an internal hazing. Some of the younger kids show up and I think that initial week or two it’s a bit of pressure to try to maybe live up to something, feeling you’re the new kid in town. The new kid on the team."

Photo BEN RASMUSSEN/WIRED

[Jox]

Re-post of radio show, March 16th 2012
Dolph starts at around 59:40 and for 25 mins long

[Jox]

Dolph discusses LEGENDARY and THE EXPENDABLES with Joblo:
http://www.joblo.com/horror-movies/news ... bles-3-196

It's kind of fun to see you and Scott together in a movie that's a little different than what we're used to.

Yeah, I think so. It's fun and different. We get to talk a little more.

Were you looking to switch it up a little?

That was part of it. For me, it was a chance to play a different type of guy. He has different levels and colors than what I get to usually play. He's a tough guy and has a bad side, but he's also a scientist and he likes to hear his own voice talk. The fact that it's mainly for the Chinese market is pretty interesting, because that's the future, they have different tastes than Western movies.

Do you enjoy playing the villain, the opportunity to sink your teeth in the role?

Yeah, it's fun. It's refreshing in a way. Sometimes the villain is more memorable.

When I talked to Scott Adkins the other day, he let me know that he was originally up for the villain role, but you took an interest in it and landed it. Is that accurate?

Maybe you're right, I didn't know that. I kind of like Harker, he's an interesting guy.

Scott told me working in China is a totally different experience than working anywhere else; what can you tell me about your experience there?

They're in the infancy in filmmaking there, in terms of working with outside production companies. The conditions are sort of rough, and the crews have to take care of their own food, feeding themselves, that's their problem. [Laughs] They don't have the same safety regulations as America or Europe, it's like you have to watch out when you're doing stuff, and during the action you have to watch out for yourself. But when you're shooting here at night, they have lights, and all the paths are lit up, and all the potholes are filled in and everything. Over there, you just have to watch out, if you break your leg that's your problem. I've seen that. Otherwise, I enjoyed it. The D.P., a Chinese guy, was very, very talented. They have a different eye.

It looks like we're already starting to cater to their audience.

Oh yeah, definitely. If you have the right project, usually it has to be something provocative, you can get a deal with China.

Do you still enjoy doing your own stunt work, when possible?

Yeah, I do. It keeps me staying in shape. When I do these movies I feel I have to do the stunts myself, people want to see that. I haven't done too many movies where I do backflips and work with wires, that's not my thing, you know? I do the fights, and some motorcycle riding if I can. It helps if people see it's you; when you have a stunt double doing it, the continuity isn't there.

Is there anything you haven't done that you're looking to do?

I like historical movies, period pieces. World War II - I'm actually doing a World War II movie never year. I'd like to do some more directing, too. I started directing, but then I stopped because I had to produce and direct. If you don't produce, you don't have final say and that's when people come and take your work, and that's a bit upsetting. I've directed only action genres pictures, so it would be fun to do something different.

When you look back at your long career, what do you think the most difficult or challenging projects were?

Gosh, there are a few. One that was very challenging was ROCKY IV. That was fun, but I was new. I hadn't seen a camera before, basically, and I was nervous. THE EXPENDABLES shoots have been tough. The conditions have been rough; in the second one we were in Bulgaria in the winter. Also my first directing gig, which was in Romania, that was tough because I had the bond company looking over my shoulder all the time. I didn't sleep much, either. I remember at the wrap party, everyone was drinking, I was standing at the bar and I fell asleep on the bar. [Laughs] I don't think I've ever done that before.

Speaking of THE EXPENDABLES, can you talk a little about your relationship with Sylvester Stallone, and what has kept it going all these years?

He's been a mentor to me in some respects, because he's very driven and meticulous when he works, as both an actor and director. He's the guy I've been closest to over the years, and I've gotten to watch how he does things. It never fails to amaze me, how hard he works. Part of the talent is not giving up, you have to take the battles and believe in your vision. Especially in THE EXPENDABLES series, he's been very active in these movies. But on a personal level, yeah, we've stayed in touch. That's kind of unusual, because in this business you don't work with people for 30 years. We thought we were grown up when we did ROCKY IV, and we were men, but compared to now we were kind of kids, at least I was. But he's been there for my whole career.

Do you think the new EXPENDABLES might be the best one yet?

I hope so, it will be fun. The cast is great, guys like Antonio Banderas, Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes. Wesley is a cool guy, we got along really well on set. It's bigger, certainly, and I think a little harder. The second one is a little more jokey, I think this one is a little more brutal.

Finally, are we going to see the return of Andrew Scott in another UNIVERSAL SOLDIER movie?

Yeah, why not? I think there's something in the works, I know they're working on something. That's the only sequel I've done aside from THE EXPENDABLES, and those are just a few years apart so it feels like one big movie. UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, the first one was twenty years ago. Hopefully I don't have to do Ivan Drago again, I don't want to put those shorts on. [Laughs]

Thanks for your time, Dolph.

Thanks, you too.

And to Fangoria:
http://www.fangoria.com/new/qa-dolph-lu ... legendary/

FANGORIA: Have you ever been hunting yourself?

DOLPH LUNDGREN: I’ve done a bit of hunting, mostly in Sweden. I’m not a huge hunter. I don’t get a kick out of killing animals, really. I’ve done a few things when I was a bit younger, but I can relate to it, you know?

FANG: I did it for the first time this past September, and enjoyed it.

LUNDGREN: A lot of people don’t understand that a lot of it is control, actually. In Sweden, for instance, a lot of the elk population, if you don’t decimate it every year, they starve to death in the winter anyway. It used to be that wolves would take them, but now there are not a lot of wolves left. It’s nature’s balance; its an upkeep sort of thing. Most people are against it. They don’t understand. They think of it just as killing.

FANG: Absolutely. The character you play is on the opposite end of that, though; balance may not be what his motivation is.

LUNDGREN: Exactly!

FANG: While you were playing Harker, did you think back to when you were hunting, or were you in a completely different mindset?

LUNDGREN: I think what I did was, I kind of saw him as a guy who has a chip on his shoulder; he’s trying to prove something. He’s kind of full of himself, he likes to hear his own voice, is a bit of an egomaniac and believes he’s always right, that he knows everything. He’s just one of those people. I run into them in my business sometimes—no names or anything! I looked at him that way. The hunting was secondary to his personality traits.

FANG: The other key character in LEGENDARY is a cryptozoologist; how far into that field did you get for this movie?

LUNDGREN: Not very far. I just worked on my character to try to give him a lot of colors and different levels that people might not have seen me do before. He likes to talk a lot and hear his own voice. There is a lecturing quality to him. I looked more at that aspect. As far as seeking mythological animals and stuff, you know, I’m not into Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

FANG: What was it like making the movie in China, and how were the Chinese fans? Did they know you from your past roles, or are you new to them?

LUNDGREN: That’s a good question. China is very different; it’s a huge country, and very modern in some ways and very…I don’t want to say “backward,” but once you get out in the countryside, you’re back 100 years. The people are very driven and conscientious. They work hard, but they’re not used to making Western types of movies—even though this was partially a Chinese production. It was different. The studios outside of Beijing are huge. They took me to my dressing room, and it was enormous—but there was not one piece of furniture in there. Me and a couple of people walked in and said, “OK, nice, but what do we sit on, the floor?” “Oh! OK. Yeah, we need some couches in here, a table, maybe a fridge.”

It’s just very basic stuff. Some things you’d expect aren’t there. I believe some people did recognize me, but I think at first they looked at me because I’m a tall blond guy. I think you have to have a presence in China, a different way for them to know you. One of the reasons I did LEGENDARY was to kind of start that process. I ended up doing some other movies in Asia over the last two years, in Thailand. It’s not hard for me to stand out there; I just have to sit down on a few talk shows, and they’ll see who I am as a person.

FANG: Hollywood has been doing a lot of shooting in China lately, on films like IRON MAN 3 and the latest TRANSFORMERS. Where there any logistic challenges shooting there—any special rules or restrictions? Or was it just another job that happened to be in China?

LUNDGREN: What happens is, when you do a film in China, I knew a little bit about it because I co-produced a picture in Thailand, and we were negotiating for a Chinese deal. Basically, they are quite sensitive to the material. That’s why with movies like IRON MAN and TRANSFORMERS, it’s all fantasy, they’re all PG-rated, there is no provocative stuff—no drugs or prostitution or executions or a lot of blood. They are very sensitive to that. For instance, I don’t think you can get YouTube in China. Those violent computer games aren’t available. You can’t get MTV. They kind of watch what content the kids are looking at. Some of that isn’t such a bad idea, I think, if you look at our Western society and what is happening to our kids. But I do think there is a problem if you want to do a serious movie about real subject matter, social subject matter, that has real people and real suffering or real social injustice in it. That’s difficult in China. We didn’t have that in the case of LEGENDARY, because it’s a fantasy movie.

FANG: Another horror-oriented movie you did recently was BATTLE OF THE DAMNED, where you fight zombies with the help of robots.

LUNDGREN: Yeah [laughs].

FANG: What was it like to fight zombies with the aid of robots?

LUNDGREN: [Laughs] I don’t know, man. We shot that in Indonesia. I’m not really into robots or zombies, but I kind of liked the story and the character. It was sort of a Clint Eastwood thing. I hadn’t done anything like that, and wanted to try it. I don’t mind horror stuff, but I have to connect it to reality somehow. There are so many of these fantastic movies where characters are airborne, flying from building to building. It really isn’t my style. I guess that’s as far as I took it with the zombies and the robots.

FANG: To kind of segue off your recent films, you’re a big mixed martial arts fan, and tweeted pictures of yourself at UFC 175 with Lyoto Machida and Ronda Rousey.

LUNDGREN: Yeah [laughs]!

FANG: How has the popularity of MMA influenced fight choreography? With fans having a better idea of what real fighting looks like, how have the choreographers adjusted to that?

LUNDGREN: That’s a good question. It’s funny; it’s almost going in two directions. One direction is based on the Chinese and Asian-type choreography, where it’s very fluid and fast. There are a lot of jumps and spin kicks, a lot of chicks beating up guys. It’s interesting, because obviously in the ring, you get hit once in the face and you see what happens. They’re wearing thin gloves. Without gloves, even if you’re a very tough guy, you take two or three shots and you’re done. If you look at THE RAID, for instance, a real fight doesn’t look like that. I think there are a string of pictures coming up that have more realistic fighting.

It’s funny you should mention that, because I was just reading a script the other day and thinking that if I ever control a picture again, as a director or as a producer, it would be great to do a film where all the fighting is very real. All of the street fighting would be very authentic, because it would be kind of shocking to most of the audience. I don’t know how commercial it would be, but it would certainly be different. People would go, “Oh shit! That’s what it’s really like?” It would be interesting to do that.

FANG: What do you think of your fellow Swede, mixed martial artist Alexander Gustafsson, how did you score his first fight with Jon Jones and what’s your prediction for their rematch?

LUNDGREN: Well, I didn’t watch the first fight. I was making a movie in Thailand for five months, and then I was in South Africa. I know they are both great fighters. So I can’t give you a prediction right now. What I can say is that I really enjoy Weidman and Machida. What’s cool about both of those guys is they come across as real martial artists when they talk. They have a certain humility and respect for each other, and for other people in the game. When I started in martial arts, part of their purpose was for the individual to become a better person—to work with yourself, not inflate your own ego. It’s actually the opposite. That’s why I really like Machida, his trainer, his dad, and also Weidman has the same quality. I’m sorry I can’t give you a prediction because I didn’t see their first match, but I’m sure it will be a good fight.

FANG: That’s very diplomatic of you.

LUNDGREN: Thank you [laughs]!

FANG: I figured you would have been all over Gustafsson, your fellow countryman.

LUNDGREN: I’ve seen him fight a couple of times, and I know he is a tough guy. I just haven’t studied him and Jon Jones, so I can’t give you a prediction.

[Jox]

Clip from EPK
http://vimeo.com/85417162
http://dailydead.com/exclusive-clip-legendary/

[Jox]

http://www.mania.com/content_print.php?id=140209
http://www.mania.com/mania-exclusive-in ... 40209.html

Question: What was the appeal of this character in Legendary?

Dolph Lundgren: He was entertaining and comedic. A little full of himself. An inflated ego. It’s a little broader than I’m used to and I thought it would be a fun experiment. Let’s see if we can make this guy watchable and fun while still being pretty awful.



Q: Is that something you need to do for villainous characters? Some way of connecting them to the rest of us?

DL: Yeah, you need to find their motivation, what makes them tick. It’s the old cliché: no one thinks they’re a bad guy. But that’s internal. Externally, you need to figure out how to make the guy watchable and fun. Sometimes it’s the dialogue or the physical movements. Sometimes it’s the scenario. But you can’t just make people hate you. They have to enjoy hating you. They have to have fun hating you. This script found that tone, that sense of fun.



Q: You shot this in China. Does anything change about the approach to the scenario, with the effects shots and all?

DL: It definitely does. They have a different tradition there. A different cinematic history. Their movies tend to have more of a fantasy element, which is why they wanted these locations in China. They didn’t want it to be shot on a green screen. You can shoot green screen everywhere and they wanted to highlight these locations. You don’t say no to that as an actor. It’s always better to shoot on site than in a sound stage somewhere. Of course, you still got two Chinese guys running around with a pole and an X on it to be the monster, so there’s some imagination required. But the setting really helps. You go where the work is, as an actor, but this time, it was a real learning experience.



Q: Were there any unexpected challenges to that type of filming? The Chinese school of filming?

DL: Mainly a logistical issue. Figuring out where to go and how to get around, and how to ask for stuff, like where the bathroom is. Not high art. You also have to take care with some of the safety stuff. We have rigorous safety procedures in the West, but in China, they’re a little more rough and tumble. Not that it wasn’t safe, but they’re more inclined just to roll the camera and work with it. It’s probably very similar to what it was in Hollywood fifty years ago. It can make for a more energized film, but you need to watch your step a little more closely.



Q: You’ve been at this for three decades. Do things change about the sort of roles you look for, or is it more of a case of knowing what your strengths are?

DL: Both I think. Sometimes you do it just to stay in the game, to get paid for what you love. Then sometimes you have a baby, a special project that you want to do a certain way. I don’t think anything’s changed about what I look for, but I think I understand where that balance is between those two. Fatherhood changes that. I loved Hollywood and loved working on everything I could. Then I had kids, and went back to Europe to raise my kids. When you come back to Hollywood, it’s a little different. You start thinking about other things, things behind the camera. You think about producing or directing, trying to get momentum going on that. These are things I always wanted to do. If you can do that, you can start fighting harder for those projects you really want to do. If you can finance the movie you love, you can make the movie you love.



Q: How long did you think about producing and directing?

DL: For a while, for a while. I was in a situation about nine years ago where the director on a film had to step down. He got extremely ill and I had to step in and finish it. That was the start of it. Also, again, if you’re the producer on a film, you get the final cut, which lets you make the films you want to make the way you want to make it.



Q: You’ve got The Expendables 3 coming up, which is a lot bigger than this once. What’s the difference in approaching big movies vs. small movies?

DL: There’s not a whole lot of difference. You have a lot more pressure on a big picture. You’ve got Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger watching you do your thing, so the pressure’s on! At the same time, you’ve got more people around you to help carry the load. You have more freedom in a small movie, but a big movie gives you more resources. So there’s more pressure in some ways and less pressure in others. Ultimately, it’s all about the same thing: getting a good performance that’s going to entertain people

[stockwell7]

Crave Online interview

Legendary: Dolph Lundgren on Typecasting & Expendables 3

http://www.craveonline.ca/film/interviews/735019-legendary-dolph-lundgren-on-typecasting-expendables-3

[Jox]

Longer version of the Dolph EPK interview

[Jox]

'Expendables 3' Unscripted With Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture
http://on.aol.com/video/expendables-3-u ... -518362421

[Jox]

'Rocky' actor reads up on history
(CNN) - Actor Dolph Lundgren on "The Deserters," a book that sheds new light on the lives of some British and American soldiers during World War II.

[bomaz]

'Expendables 3' Unscripted With Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture
http://on.aol.com/video/expendables-3-u ... -518362421

Funny one. Plus, they're my four favorites expendables (nothing against the others though).

[shooby]

'Expendables 3' Unscripted With Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture
http://on.aol.com/video/expendables-3-u ... -518362421

Funny one. Plus, they're my four favorites expendables (nothing against the others though).

I discovered Terry Crews in this saga and since I love this guy !

[Jox]

http://www.accesshollywood.com/dolph-lu ... eo_2299237





Dolph will be on ExtraTV hosted by Mario Lopez today at 10am (PST)
http://www.extratv.com/
http://www.universalstudioshollywood.co ... hollywood/