Dolph Lundgren put Sylvester Stallone in intensive care while filming Rocky IV
Topics: Film and TV, Sylvester Stallone
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: WENN Rights Ltd / Entertainment Pictures / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Film and TV, Sylvester Stallone
Legendary actor Sylvester Stallone has appeared in some of the greatest movies of all time, and in them, has taken the odd punch or two.
As many will know, Stallone played the classic fighter Rocky Balboa in the Rocky film franchise. But for the fourth film, things got a bit too intense and serious with co-star Dolph Lundgren.
In Rocky IV, Lundgren plays the main antagonist and rival to Rocky in Soviet-Russian Ivan Drago.
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Stallone wanted to make their fight look as real as possible on-screen, so the star, who is also a director, instructed Lundgren to hit a few hard punches that really connected.
But one of the punches badly hurt Stallone, putting him in an intensive care unit for nine days.
The Hollywood Reporter have unearthed old interviews the stars did about the unfortunate accident, with them picking one out from Stallone.
In a now-deleted YouTube video, Stallone said: "Dolph Lundgren put me in the hospital for nine days.
"I knew I was in trouble when I showed up and nuns met you at the ICU."
Apparently during one of the fight scenes, Stallone told his co-star to forget the choreography and 'just go out there and try to clock me'.
Lundgren did just that and it was only until after shooting had finished for the day Stallone knew something was wrong.
He admitted that when he was looking back at the day's footage, the damage was done through an undercut.
Stallone said that the punch that 'caught the ribs and hit the heart against the ribcage' made him feel like he had been hit by a bus.
Lundgren talked about the punch in a separate interview with the Invicta Fighting Championships.
He joked: "All I did was obey orders - He was the boss. I did what he told me. We came back to L.A. and the producer was like, ‘Hey Dolph, you’ve got two weeks off — Sly’s in the hospital.'"
The actor added in a conversation with Men's Health, he said: "I think it was like an insurance scam or something. I mean, I did hit him. ... And in those days, I was in pretty good shape."
Despite the shocking incident, there seems to be no bad blood between the pair as they continue to make films together to this day.
Stallone and Lundgren both feature in Expendables 4 which is set to release on 22 September 2023.