Dolph Lundgren Felt Sylvester Stallone’s Action Films Were More Real Than Matt Damon’s ‘Bourne’ Films
Sylvester Stallone helped Dolph Lundgren achieve action star status when he cast him in Rocky IV. But action films changed a bit over the years thanks to features like the Bourne trilogy. Lundgren seemed to feel this could be both a positive and a negative.
What Dolph Lundgren felt about Matt Damon’s ‘Bourne’ movies
Lundgren has starred in his own fair share of action movies. He was cast in features such as 1989’s The Punisher and Universal Soldier, and held a certain fondness for action stars in the 80s. To him, the action heroes of yesterday had the physique to earn their roles more so than the action stars of today.
“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,” Lundgren once told Film School Rejects. “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.”
To Lundgren, the Bourne films served as examples of what modern action films were. He felt the Damon movies used editing techniques to convey the main character Jason Bourne’s brutality.
“It came a little bit with the Bourne series, that took a really good actor who wasn’t really a fighter, but the story was perfect because it said how can he be such a lethal fighter, you know? How can Matt Damon be so lethal? He doesn’t know who he is, you were wondering who he is, and how he can fight like that? And in order to accomplish that it had to use a special editing job,” Lundgren once told the AV Club. “Because you couldn’t really see what was going on. Then everybody copied that style, like what you were saying, where you can’t see what’s going on.”
This was a strong contrast from films like Stallone’s, where the action was clear.
“Whereas in the old days, when me and Stallone were fighting in the ring, everything was real. It was all us. There was nobody else in there. Stallone, with no shirt on, getting hit while he was directing the movie. That doesn’t happen much anymore,” Lundgren said.
Sylvester Stallone agreed with Dolph Lundgren about modern action films
Stallone had the exact same feelings as Lundgren on the matter. Although, the Rocky star was aware that some of his more contemporary peers might not agree with him.
“I think that some young actors will look at me as this archaic, prehistoric creature because now we’ve become much more scientific, less personal,” Stallone once told The Sydney Morning Herald. “Most of my peers were very physical. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis – they were just more hands-on. I think that a lot more actors today are hands-off and they’re more intellectual.”
Stallone also quipped that one of his own iconic characters would make quick work of Damon’s Jason Bourne.
“Rambo would murder Jason Bourne. I’m kidding. Maybe the one in The Transporter though – Jason Statham,” he said.
Sylvester Stallone was among 1 of many actors that was originally considered for Jason Bourne
Ironically, Stallone was a part of a small circle of actors that Bourne Identity director Doug Liman considered for the role. But Damon ultimately fit Liman’s vision for the franchise, which he wanted to be a unique take on the action genre.
“I met with a wide range of people when casting for the film, people like Russell Crowe and even Sly Stallone at one point,” Liman once told BBC. “But when I sat down with Matt and explained that I wanted to take on an action movie but do it in a different way, I got the sense that he understood. He was coming from the same place I was coming from and I felt we could become partners on this. Plus, I’m a big Matt Damon fan.”
