American audiences most likely first caught a glimpse of Dolph Lundgren back in 1985 in Rocky IV (the one with that robot) as the deadly and imposing Russian boxer Ivan Drago. (If not, they certainly remember Dolph's insane-great performance in The Expendables.) The commanding actor, who hails from Sweden and has dabbled in both action-flick roles to playing He-Man in the live-action Masters Of The Universe, has also been directing films since 2004. This year, Lundgren's fitness-tips book Flexible is due out in August. In this I Should Watch That, Lundgren told us how long it took to perfect his Stallone impression, why he indentifies with Elvis, and why Clint Eastwood's such an inspirational director.

No. 1: Sexy Beast

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I'm working on this character who's... kind of colorful. I may do it in a movie. In Sexy Beast, Ben Kingsley plays a mobster. I saw part of it on the plane, but now I want to see the whole thing because I heard he's doing an animal. You know how there are these animal exercises in acting to help your character? He's doing like a German Shepherd. He talks like a dog, very aggressive. So I wanted to check this out, because I'm playing a hitman and I'm a wolf for that. Wolves are kinda predatory, kinda cool in some ways. Different from dogs. So I was thinking of doing that, checking out Ben Kingsley and what he did.

Have you used that acting exercise in your other films?

I haven't used it in a film before. I've done it in class. The reason I thought of it was because they call him "The Wolf," this Tarantino-ish character. He kills a lot of people but is very likeable and fun. He has a good sense of humor. I thought I'd try that, and it seems to work to make him like a wolf, to walk a certain way and do a thing with your shoulders where you're like the alpha dog. [Laughs.] Well, they're all dogs, but wolves have more of an intensity about them, more of a purpose when they a walk. A dog is just trucking along.

So this is research for a part, but I don't even know if I'm doing it. I wanted to work on it because it's fun to work on stuff now that I have some down time. I'm actually writing a book about something else, a fitness book, so I'm not doing any acting right now. I'm not filming, so I wanted to work on some colorful, offbeat characters. The thing is, the films that I've done, the times I've done colorful, more offbeat characters... Well, Rocky IV was one I guess, but then you have Universal Soldier, and Johnny Mnemonic with Keanu Reeves was another one. I did one with Stallone in this last picture. It's always seemed to work well and people seem to like it. Whenever I play myself, whatever that means, it's kinda boring.

“Whenever I play myself, whatever that means, it's kinda boring.”

The Wolf is a Russian hitman, so one aspect is maybe that he walks that way. And maybe when he fights, he can [Snarls violently.], maybe a crazy thing. Kinda like a growl, because he kills all these people, mostly with his hands. And he can dress impeccably, maybe in all white, but he doesn't want any specks to soil any of his clothing. [Laughs.] But this hitman is very comedic in the way that he moves and talks. He starts crying talking about who he had to kill, and then he takes a swig of vodka and just goes [Adopts thick Russian accent.], "So I must get myself on a team, get on the payroll." He just switches, a psychotic personality, which is fun.

When you've done that animal exercise, what animals do you feel you're really good at doing?

[Laughs.] I don't know, I haven't done it too much. I'm good at anything big, so I guess cats? Lions? Tigers? Stuff like that.

You were talking about this character you're working on, The Wolf. Out of curiosity, what's a nickname you've had in the past or one you've always wanted to have?

Big Swede. [Laughs.] I don’t know, I don't have one. Swede, or "Big Guy?" Stallone used to go, [Adopts Sylvester Stallone voice.] "Hey, you're my Klaus Kinski. You want eccentricity, you hire Dolph Lundgren!"

Hear Dolph's Sly impression:

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How long did it take you to get a good Stallone impression going?

25 years. [Laughs.]

No. 2: Invictus

I like Clint Eastwood pictures, I like him as a director. I've directed a couple smaller movies myself. Very small compared to his, but still, I like his style because it's very easy and basic but it works and doesn't complicate things. I didn't see this one, but the last one of his that I saw was Gran Torino. Most of his films are pretty small and contained, and he likes using a lot of new actors, or people he just picks up off the street sometimes.

He shoots so fast, I heard that people don't know what's going on. They don't realize you're acting and he's done already. That's why he gets good performances, because he does one take or shoots them in rehearsal. So I want to see what he did with this film, which obviously is a bigger picture but, still. It's about apartheid and rugby in South Africa, I guess.

“He shoots so fast, I heard that people don't know what's going on. They don't realize you're acting and he's done already.”

But a lot of his movies are about death, life and death, but death mostly. The good ones, like Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino, it's about death. The good ones are about death and how you deal with it. It's very kind of dark, but he has a dark sense of humor. It's entertaining, but it's still heavy stuff.

Do you feel like in your body of work there's a uniting theme like that?

[Laughs.] Yeah, you don't really know. They say you make the same movie every time when you're directing, not quite, but one thing I've noticed in films I've directed is they're about travel. Characters who come and go. I think because I travel so much, and I've only directed five movies but I've thought about that. There's always some aspect of travel, motion, or being out of place or coming to a new place. Maybe that's because I was born in Sweden, spent half of my life in America, Europe, had a family there, and now I'm back here again.

But they say when you direct, you make so many decisions everyday, like hundreds of decisions. "Do you want blue or green?" "Um, green." "How about this? Yes or no?" "No." And then when it's added up after one year of prep, shoot, and post, and suddenly you have a movie, and that was your vision, whatever that was. What I haven't done, which a lot of people say you should start with, is to do a film about something you know a lot about. For instance, if you're Martin Scorsese, do a film about the Italian mafia. If you're Woody Allen, do something about New York Upper East Side social life. But I haven't. [Laughs.] I've only done movies because I just got a shot at directing something. I'm trying to do something maybe in Sweden. I like history, maybe something historical or something about Scandinavia or something like that. That would be kinda cool.

No. 3: Nine

It's a musical, because I really want to be a musical artist. [Laughs.] No. It's a musical, but I didn't have any interest but there's this DP from Australia I worked with on three of my movies who recommended it. He said I should watch it because it's really beautiful the way they shot it and the colors. And they do mixed format like HD with 35, with 16mm that they've blown up. That's the reason I want to watch the picture, mostly.

Do you watch a lot of musicals?

[Laughs.] Not really. I like the old ones, like Singing In The Rain. Fred Astaire, those ones, they're really fun and entertaining. You can watch them when you're in bed and catch them on TV, and yeah, it's kinda fun. My parents used to watch them and stuff when I was a kid. But no, I don't really watch musicals too much.

What made you lose interest in them?

I don't know. They're just a bit stupid, mostly. The old ones have good production values and the songs were great, very romantic. But if Elvis is in it, I'll watch it, even if it's bad, because I'm a big Elvis fan. They're stupid, most of them. There's only one or two that are good. I'm a big fan of him as an artist, I think he was just very, very charismatic. You just can't take your eyes off him when he's on the stage. He's very unpredictable, kinda like Brando in acting, where he would just do s*** that he didn't know he was gonna do himself. He would just get out there onstage and s*** would just happen.

I guess I feel like I'm part of old Hollywood in some ways because I'm tall and whatever it is. There's a certain type of actor the studio scouts would pick in those days. Now it's a bit different, after the '70s with DeNiro and method acting, and it's changed a bit. But I think as an artist, Elvis was just one of those guys. Very masculine, yet very artistic, and good-looking. It's an interesting mix.

“So I'm sure musicals will come back, as will the other genres because there's only so many different kinds of movies you can make.”

But I think these things go in cycles. You always think you're at the end of the history. You're always like, "Well, no more westerns, no more sword-and-sandal movies." Then suddenly, bang. There's 300 out of nowhere, and there's five or 10 of them after that. And then vampire pictures are out and then, boom, there's 50 of them. So I'm sure musicals will come back, as will the other genres because there's only so many different kinds of movies you can make. Hollywood has to keep making money and there's fresh meat that hasn't seen 'em.

No. 4: True Grit

I'm interested in it because Joel and Ethan Coen are good directors and I like westerns. They say you can boil down almost every western into the same story: a stranger comes into town, he helps a family, shoots the bad guy, and then leaves or falls in love with a girl. White hat, black hat. But I like Jeff Bridges and I like that they use many of the same actors.

I'm in a different position because I started directing very late, but sure, I think as an actor I've never really had that except with Stallone for 25 years in between movies one and two. He knows how to write for me and he thinks stuff about me that I can't think of, whether in one picture I'm a Russian who says two words in the whole picture, or the next time 25 years later I'm playing a crazy Swedish gunner. [Impersonates Stallone.] "I want you to talk a lot. Talk like, don't make your voice deep, just talk fast." So, he's got visions for me that I don’t. He's very particular and different from other directors, because he's a writer-director. Stallone, he's a very funny guy and he's very entertaining. He has a way with words. Like in the Rocky picture, or Rambo, people may say what they want about them, but people across the world can quote Rocky or Rambo, even if it's just "Hey Adrian!" or "Hey Rambo, whatever it is he said!" He came up with one line that the whole world knows, and that's not easy. I don't care who you are. I wish I could do it once. He's done it many times. And like Clint says, [Impersonates Clint Eastwood.] "If you don't like it, don't let the door hit you on the ass."

No. 5: Enter The Void

My DP said it's got tremendous cinematography, one of the best. He said it'd probably be nominated and win for best cinematography for the Oscars. It's a drug picture. It has a really interesting look. Everyone's been really into this desaturated that's been kinda big, like Batman Begins, very stark, but this guy's going the opposite direction. It's very lush, almost like an acid trip. Not that I've been on one, but I can imagine this is what it'd be like. Very, very colorful, and dream-like, the whole movie. Very interesting. Lots of out-of-focus stuff. It's about some drug that they're taking and they enter another world or something.

“Look, the screen is the same size whether you had one million or a hundred million.”

It's so hard to make a picture. Anybody that can make a movie for a little money, and get that kind of attention with unknown actors, that's inspiring if you're a director because you realize you don't need $200 million and a big studio. Look, the screen is the same size whether you had one million or a hundred million. It's the same thing, you just gotta fill it up with something interesting.

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