Dolph Lundgren Talks About the Glory Days of '80s Action Movies When Action Stars Had Real Muscles
I sure do love those badass testosterone-filled action movies from the 80s. Grew up watching those movies and you just don’t really see younger action movie stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Carl Weathers, Lou Ferrigno, and Dolph Lundgren anymore, actors who flexed their way through the movies they starred in.
We still get really cool and fun action movies with talented action stars, but very few bring the muscle mass to the movies they make. We’ve still got actors like Dwayne Johnson, John Cena, and Dave Bautista, but even they are getting up there in age.
During a recent interview with Film School Rejects, Lundgren talked about the current state of action movies, and when specifically talking about Marvel, he explains how there’s a lack of muscles now:
“They’re very good now. I mean, people are very good at putting these things together. Back in those days, you took somebody who could take their shirt off and have real muscles. Now, you take somebody who has won an Academy Award, put them in a suit, and he looks like he’s got muscles. Some do have real physiques, but in those days, Stallone and Schwarzenegger and Van Damme, they were really physical specimens that you can look up to, not just as an actor or as a character, but as a person, as a man.”
Lundgren when on to talk about the days of Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme and how there was no denying their presence on screen. He said:
“There’s another feeling when you watch Conan the Barbarian with Arnold. You really believe it. You really believe it’s him doing it. There are no quick cuts. They’re not trying to hide the double, because he doesn’t have a double, because you couldn’t get a double for Arnold. Well, maybe in a long shot, but how could you double Arnold’s physique? There’s no way. He had to do it all himself. It was the same with me and Sly in Rocky IV, all that boxing. We didn’t have doubles. It was us.”
At least we’ll always have those action movies from the ‘80s to watch and enjoy!