The Action Entertainment Website

Impact meets the Expendables (Part 1)

Written by (Contributor) on 22nd August 2012

Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Statham, Lundgren, Adkins and Van Damme...meet our own Expendable Russell Sheath to talk tactics... 

For anyone who is aged 25 or older its impossible not to be impressed by the group of screen legends who are sat in front of me. For anyone under 25, well, they most likely apply the word ‘legend’ to someone who can pull a nifty trick on their BMX...but to some of us that title isn’t applied so easily. Maybe I will throw another word into the mix: icons. I have had a relationship with these men since the day I walked into the barber shop aged ten and waved the free magazine that you collect in the cinema foyer under the nose of the unsuspecting mop-trimmer. The barber (who, lets face it, most likely hadn’t kept up on hair fashion beyond the obligatory short back and sides) looked bewildered at the image I presented him and that I demanded he imitated. On the cover of the magazine: Arnold Schwarzenegger in the poster for the movie Commando.

I’m saddened to say that the resulting haircut didn’t quite reflect the character on the cover and my body-warmer stylings were more McFly than Matrix, but the influence and the impact was there. I am sure everyone reading this has their own story relating to one of the men sat before me, I know I have many, many more, which is why being sat in THIS room and in THIS company is more than a press opportunity, its simply something that if you had told my 10 year old self would ever happen, I would never, ever believe you.

It's at this point where the mind truly boggles at the sheer screen power these men have commanded. Sure, there are Commando or Rocky stories I could relate in this piece but what about Rambo, Terminator, Predator, Total Recall, Blood Sport, Red Scorpion, Cliffhanger, Cobra, the list could go on and on. Stallone, Schwazenegger, Lundgren and Van Damme are joined by two relatively new kids on the block, an ironic statement considering that one of the ‘new kids’ is almost 45 years old and a commanding presence on his own. Jason Statham is here with Brit action movie staple Scott Adkins who rounds out a presence that you would be hard-pressed to refer to as anything else but impressive...

Here is the first part of Impact's experience with The Expendables, the second part follows shortly...

 

IMPACT: How has the bar been raised in the latest Expendables?

Sylvester Stallone: On a sequel you have lost the element of surprise. In the first one you may not go very deep into character but in the second one you can explore the character a little bit more, but the odds are you can’t surprise them. You have to work more and more to come up with some creative devices to keep the action flowing.

Arnold Schwarzenegger: I was happy that I was asked again to be back. For me it was really interesting because for me one day you are making policy and trying to fix the economy and the budget problem of the state and the next day you are on the set having a shoot out with Van Damme, with Sly and with Bruce Willis and all these guys which is the interesting part of my life. Its an interesting ride to go from one to the other and I was really appreciative that Sly asked me again because I think this movies going to blow everyone away, there is so much great action and funny scenes. The movie made me laugh a lot, there are some terrific funny scenes in there which is important in an action movie that you have some comic relief and I thought everyones performance were really great and I thought the first one was impossible to top but when you see this one you will see that its bigger and better than the first one, I think its going to be really successful.

Statham: Well it always has to, every sequel has to be bigger and better otherwise the challenge isn’t there. The expectation is that you have to fulfill that requirement from the audience but if anyone knows how to make action movies its Sly and when he gets this crowd together you know you are in safe hands. When you are in the company of the greats we feel relaxed and you know you are in safe hand and you are going to do something good.

Lundgren: Its tough, we shot in Bulgaria for four months and enjoyed the tomato salads and cold chicken but the movies bigger, badder, better and funnier. Thats what we tried to do and my characters funnier, Sly came up with some jokes and Arnold had the funniest lines in the whole movie as usual but we all tried to live up to his comedy.

Adkins: For me, as the newcomer its just an honor to be asked to appear in this film with all these action legends. I grew up watching these guys and it's what made me decide that I wanted to do this for a living and I’m extremely honored to be a part of it.

Van Damme: You know when I walk on the street, the airport or whatever people come to me and say ‘hey when is your next movie’ and because of him (points to Stallone) lots of us and me at least, are going back to theatre and the big screen so I’ve got to say thank you to Stallone for putting me back on the big screen. I’ve got the good eyes, the good face and do my best in the acting and we don’t see that on DVD, we have to over exaggerate (laughs). So thank you to the Expendables and Sly...Mr Stallone. You understand why I call you Mr Stallone?

Stallone: Yes, it's because I’m your grandfather (laughs), don’t rub it in.

 

IMPACT: This is a physically demanding role and I understand you suffered a bad injured when you were making the original Expendables movie. Did this put you off making a sequel and did you suffer any injuries? Also, is there anyone’s opinion in life that you value that said you are taking too much of a risk?

Stallone: I had my neck fused in the last one when a stunt went a little bad. I had two back operations, a shoulder operation and an achilles operation and the doctor said don’t take any rough falls, let a stunt double do it. Sometimes you just have to do it, I don’t know why, I just throw common sense out the window. There were some tough ones in this one but I just cant help myself its a fools paradise for me.

 

IMPACT: In the old days there used to be quite a bit of competition between you guys as action legends, how was it working on a project together, was there quite a bit of competition between you guys on set?

Stallone: Very competitive. No one wants to be second so that's why everyone pushes so hard and why everyone has established the reputation they have is because they want to be the best and they usually are.

Schwarzenegger: I have to say that for me it was the opposite. I felt that everyone on the set was very helpful. They knew I had been out of the movies for eight years they went a little bit overboard thinking I don’t know how to hold a gun anymore or throw a punch or anything like that. Everyone came together and helped which was really terrific but at the same time we were very competitive. If you grow up and try to be the best then you have to be competitive because the more you compete and the more someone is there who is a challenge the more your performance improves. Because of that, and watching them with their action movies you always try to step it up with who has the most defined muscles, who has the best body andx who has the least amount of body fat. Who has the biggest gun and who kills the most people or who kills the most unique way.

Lundgren: .....Biggest watch.

Van Damme: No, It was a great team. When I see those guys I didn’t feel like competing I gelt like following their example so I could be as good as them.

 

IMPACT: A stunt performer sadly lost his life during the making of the film, how hard was that to bounce back from?

Stallone: it was incredibly hard on the team, they took it incredibly hard and they shut down for a while and its still something they are going through. Its happened twice before in films I’ve been on and it's never easy. 

 

IMPACT: Arnold, Some might say there are a lot of parallels between acting and politics, what parallels have you found?

Schwarzenegger: There are a lot, you are always as good as your last movie and its the same in politics. If you are successful with the economy and bringing down unemployment you are hot but if you are not  successful then things go south very quickly. Communication and how to talk to the people its the same as in show business. In acting class they talk about how you have to be real, don’t act, be real. Connect with the people, connect with your partner that you are acting with. In politics you have to connect with the people there are some politicians who talk like they are talking to a wall that they cannot penetrate. I think one of the important things is to connect with the people and to bring them in and be your partners in order to be successful. There are a lot of similarities and a lot of differences.

 

IMPACT: For action fans, the finest moment of many action films are the one liners. I wondered, looking back over your illustrious careers, what have been some of the best and perhaps the worst?

Stallone: I guess my best is ‘Yo Adrian’ and I guess my worst would have to be all my dialogue in Stop or my Mom Will Shoot, probably every line is immortally bad.

Schwarzenegger: I think that one liners are very important and sometimes when you make the movie you don’t realise that its going to be a great line. When we did the Terminator and we did the line ‘I’ll be back’ I had no ideas this was going to be an important line or something people will repeat. I had an argument with Jim Cameron about saying it ‘I WILL be back’ and he said no, I wrote it and its ‘I’ll’ be back...' I said it sounds a little soft and its more machine like if I say it 'I WILL be back...' and he says 'No, I wrote it I’ll be back. So just do me a favour and say it the way I wrote it...'So we shot it ten times and I said it and sure enough when the movie came out and I had people come up to me asking me to say the line so I said 'I’ll be back...' and they said 'No, no, no say it the way you said it in the movie...' and I said it ‘I’LL be back...’ and I realised people would connect with it. In Commando when I held the guy by his feet and said ‘I lied’ and I dropped him I knew this would be a funny line and get a big laugh, so sometimes you just know... I’ve never had a bad line.

Lundgren: I’ve never had a good line. Except maybe ‘I must break you...' With Sly, I didn’t argue with him at this point, he said to say it that way, so I did.

Statham: I’d like to have a movie that people have seen apart from this one.

 

IMPACT: Arnold, you’ve mentioned this is your first film in eight years, I was wondering what the feelings were like on the first day of shooting, were there any nerves at all?

Schwarzenegger: The interesting this is that when I was Governor and I would visit a movie set - which I did quite frequently as I wanted to thank people for shooting in California as its good for the economy. A lot of states are very smart and offer tax incentives so they go outside of California. I always thanked them and when I walked away my assistant or aid always says ‘Don’t you miss that..?'  We came from a set with Tom Cruise doing a fight scene and hanging in a harness upside down and I said ‘No, I don’t miss the harness and doing the fight scene over and over, I am happy being Governor, I cannot imagine doing that again’.

Then all of a sudden, a few years later, I said that I am on a movie and having the greatest time! I think the ideal movie when you come back is The Expendables. First of all, that's because you are working with the top action heroes, everyone works together, the spotlight does not go on me but is spread out on all of those action heroes. So it was a safer. I had the best time...from the time I got to Bulgaria and we started filming all the way to the end. it was tough for me to leave because I knew the guys were going to have fun for a few more months and I had to go and do my next film which was The Last Stand. It was the perfect way to get into the movie business again.

 

IMPACT: Were there any clashes of egos on the movies?

Stallone: I’d like to say there was because it makes for a more interesting story but no, ultimately everyone was there to do their job. The key with men like us is very, very simple. If you give out respect you get respect and if you disrespect you are going to get that too. Not many people would do a film like this but Avi Learner created this atmosphere where its very important where the Producer has a personal relationship with everybody, they don’t feel like they are hired hands, they feel like they are friends. So there was no ego clash whatsoever.

 

IMPACT: Are there plans going ahead for an Expendables 3, especially being inspired by the efforts of the current Olympians?

Stallone: That would be an interesting choice. We are thinking about different concepts because the third one is the hardest. The second is the natural progression but the third one is where the air gets rare and we are thinking ambitiously about it. So we are going for odd choices, you have to. You have to give audiences something they don’t expect at all and maybe go into a different sort of genre if you read between the lines and get out there a bit.

 

READ THE SECOND PART OF OUR EXPENDABLES CONVERSATION HERE:

http://www.impactonline.co/features/919-impact-meets-the-expendables-part-2

Written By

Russell Sheath

Contributor

Russell Sheath

A regular contributor online at Ain't It Cool News and in print for Mark Millar's Clint magazine Russ has interviewed some of the biggest names in comics, film and television and is currently working on...

Cookies: We are required by law to tell you this website uses cookies. We assume by using this site you agree to this. Click here to read more or click here to hide this message.