356: Dolph Lundgren - Fighting Rocky and Beating Cancer

Summary

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The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler

Episode 356: Dolph Lundgren – Fighting Rocky and Beating Cancer (October 20, 2025)

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Episode Overview

In this poignant and candid episode of The HoneyDew, Ryan Sickler sits down with legendary action star Dolph Lundgren to highlight the “lowlights” of Lundgren’s remarkable journey. The two discuss Dolph's childhood in Sweden marked by trauma and illness, his rise from bullied “runt” to international martial arts champion and action movie icon (“Ivan Drago” in Rocky IV), his battles with alcoholism, and—most powerfully—his long, terrifying and ultimately victorious battle against cancer. The episode mixes laughter, reflection, and raw honesty in The HoneyDew’s signature style.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Childhood in Sweden: Family, Trauma, & Adversity

• Background: Born to an upper-middle-class mother (a linguist) and a working-class father (an engineer and army officer), Dolph’s early life was shaped by Sweden’s shadow of World War II. (09:46–12:14)
• Father's Abuse & Trauma: His father’s own traumatic upbringing, mental health struggles, and violent temper led to years of physical abuse directed at his mother and only at Dolph—the eldest of four.

  “He was very violent towards my mother and beat her a lot, and he beat me...but he never touched [my siblings]. It was just me and my mom.”
  —Dolph Lundgren (14:50)

• Sickness and Isolation: Severely affected by allergies and asthma (possibly emotionally triggered), Dolph was often housebound, unable to play outside, and bullied as a frail, “runt” child (15:43–17:44):

  “I would stay home, paint, listen to music… entertain myself.”
  —Dolph (17:20)

2. Martial Arts, Growth, and the Break From Trauma

• Turning Point: At 13, Dolph was sent to live with grandparents—away from his abusive father, he started to thrive physically and academically, took up judo, and later karate. Initial motivation was self-defense, even vengeance towards his father (18:04–20:20).
• Discipline & Growth: Through sports and martial arts, he shifted his motivation from revenge to competition:

  “By the time I was 17, part of martial arts is a certain non-violent attitude... you learn to defend yourself, but you’re not supposed to hit somebody for no reason. So eventually I gave up the idea of beating him up and just pursued it as a sport.”
  —Dolph (19:27)

• Martial Arts Champion: By age 21, Dolph was Swedish, British Open, and Australian champion, gaining early fame and a sense of self-worth absent at home (20:55–22:31).

3. Psychological Aftermath: Learning to Heal

• Impact of Trauma: Despite success, the psychological scars lingered—undermining his confidence and relationships (especially with his children later). Ryan and Dolph discuss using adversity as fuel but the complexity of healing from abuse.

  “You always love your parents no matter what they do… you develop traumas and PTSD… I dealt with [that] for many, many years afterward.”
  —Dolph (22:31)

• Therapy and Healing: Only in his 50s, after divorce and struggles with alcoholism, did Dolph seek therapy, catalyzed by not wanting to ruin a second relationship. Therapy and meditation finally helped dissolve the “lump of ice in the chest.” (24:54–28:14)

  “Otherwise, you’re making decisions, but you’re not making the decisions. There’s other things making decisions… when that goes away, you’re free to live your life the way you should have done from the beginning.”
  —Dolph (27:15)

4. Cancer: Medical Crisis, Misdiagnosis, and Survival

• Diagnosis: Ten years ago, after a racing event with his daughter, he noticed blood in his urine—tests revealed a tumor on his kidney (“the worst five days of my life…”). Initial tumor removed, but five years later more tumors appeared (31:13–33:14).
• Struggle and Misdiagnosis: Underwent immunotherapy, faced rapid weight loss, and severe side effects; an initial oncologist was uncommunicative and, it turns out, incorrect, telling him he had only “maybe three years” to live (41:04).

  “I told him, just man to man, what’s the situation here? How long do I have left? He said, ‘Maybe three years.’ And I said, ‘That’s it?’”
  —Dolph (41:04)

• The Right Doctor & a Turnaround: A second opinion at UCLA revealed a misdiagnosis—a rare mutation treatable by existing drugs. Once on the correct medication, Dolph’s tumors shrank rapidly. He became “NED—no evidence of disease”—and is now cancer-free (46:46–47:42, 49:28).

  “If you don’t go find this lady, you’re done. All because of a misdiagnosis.” —Ryan (50:41)
  “I would have been dead.” —Dolph (50:45)

• Perspective Shift: The experience changed his entire outlook:

  “If cancer hadn’t come into my life, I may have killed myself doing something else, being reckless, abusing myself physically. If it wasn’t for cancer, maybe I would have been dead anyway—it saved my life in a strange way.”
  —Dolph (53:23)

• Advocacy: Dolph now helps others navigate cancer and champions the importance of second opinions.

5. Career: From Martial Arts to Ivan Drago

• Rocky IV Breakout: Out of 5,000 candidates, Dolph won the iconic role of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (55:04). He deliberately played Drago as intense and cold rather than overtly menacing, which proved much more effective (56:51–57:36).

  “Just stand there. ‘I must break you.’ Just keep it internal, you know...” —Dolph (57:29)

• Public Reaction: While some gave him grief for “killing Apollo Creed” (58:25–59:07), most admired him—especially for his imposing, mysterious screen presence.

  “Some people, especially the young ladies, kind of liked my character because he was like kind of unreal looking, you know, and very fit…” —Dolph (58:25)

• Physicality on Set: Both he and Stallone took real hits during filming. Stallone’s hospitalization was the result of Dolph’s formidable punch… on Sly’s instruction! (61:07–61:23)
• Return in Creed II: In Creed II, Dolph channeled his real father’s trauma to play Drago as a nuanced, multi-generational character, delivering a powerful on-screen reconciliation that echoed his own healing (62:25–64:33).

6. Other Anecdotes & Lighter Moments

• Home Invasion (2009): Three masked burglars broke into his house—upon realizing whose home it was, they fled, even returned some watches! (54:00–54:28)
• Advice to Young Dolph:

  “I would give him a big hug and say, 'Don’t worry, everything’s going to be fine. Just be yourself and don’t worry so much.'” (65:08)

7. Current Projects & Life Today

• Vodka Brand: “Hard Cut”—premium potato vodka, available at BevMo/Total Wine and top LA/NY/FL venues (03:45–05:46, 65:50).
• Documentary & Book:
  • Doc: Dolph Unbreakable, showing at festivals, details his career, cancer, and resilience.
  • Book: Upcoming autobiography with Harper Collins (07:47).
• Health: Cancer-free at 67, training, and supporting others with survivorship.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|--------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14:50 | Dolph | “He was very violent towards my mother and beat her a lot, and he beat me. …It was just me and my mom.” | | 22:31 | Dolph | “...when you’re a young kid, you always love your parents…you develop traumas and PTSD…I dealt with [that] for many years after.” | | 27:15 | Dolph | “Otherwise you’re making decisions, but you’re not making the decisions. …There’s other things making decisions.” | | 41:04 | Dolph | “I told him, just man to man, what’s the situation here? How long do I have left? He said, ‘Maybe three years.’” | | 50:41 | Ryan & Dolph | “If you don’t go find this lady, you’re done. All because of a misdiagnosis.” —Ryan “I would have been dead.” —Dolph | | 53:23 | Dolph | “If cancer hadn’t come into my life, I may have killed myself doing something else… It saved my life in a strange way.” | | 57:29 | Dolph | “Just stand there. ‘I must break you.’ Just keep it internal, you know...” | | 65:08 | Dolph | “I would give [16-year-old me] a big hug and say, 'Don’t worry, everything’s going to be fine. Just be yourself and don’t worry so much.'” | | 65:30 | Dolph | "If he dies, he dies." (in character, classic Drago line) |

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:01] – Dolph’s background, vodka, documentary/book plugs
• [09:46] – Early life & parental history
• [14:50] – Father's abuse, trauma's impact
• [18:04] – Martial arts and self-transformation
• [22:31] – Psychology of trauma and need for therapy
• [24:54] – Entering therapy in his 50s
• [31:13] – 1st cancer diagnosis and initial ordeal
• [41:04] – Misdiagnosis, receiving a devastating prognosis
• [46:46] – The right diagnosis, hope, and recovery
• [49:28] – Cancer-free, new outlook
• [54:00] – Home invasion story
• [55:04] – Rocky IV, landing Drago, career break
• [61:07] – Stunt injuries/hospitalizing Stallone
• [62:25] – Creed II, channeling his real father
• [65:08] – Advice to young self
• [65:30] – Classic Drago call-back: “If he dies, he dies.”

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Final Thoughts

Dolph Lundgren’s story is a testament to resilience, honesty, and personal growth. From the traumas of childhood, through competitive sports and action stardom, to the harrowing uncertainty of a cancer misdiagnosis, Dolph’s journey is both sobering and uplifting. He underscores the importance of mental health, second opinions in medicine, and the power of facing your lowlights with courage and humor.

Ryan Sickler’s empathetic, laughter-tinged interview brings out remarkable candor and vulnerability, making this episode a must-listen for anyone seeking inspiration, hope, or just a damn good story.

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Transcript

[Dolph Lundgren]

Hey, this is Sarah. Look, I'm standing out front of a.m. p.m. Right now and, well, you're sweet and all, but I found something more fulfilling, even kind of cheesy. But I like it. Sure, you met some of my dietary needs, but they've just got it all. So farewell, oatmeal. So long, you strange soggy. Break up with bland breakfast and taste.

[Ryan Sickler]

AM PM's bacon, egg and cheese biscuit made with K tree eggs, smoked bacon and melty cheese on a buttery biscuit. AM PM Too much. Good stuff.

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[Ryan Sickler]

Hey, guys, this Friday is the premiere of my new special, Live and alive on my YouTube. All right, I'm gonna be live in the comments. Make sure you get over there. You join me. There's a countdown going on right now. You can get over there. Set a reminder, be there. Be live in the comments. You know what happened on my last special? YouTube demonetized it. But when I did the way back, over 2,000 of you guys showed up and we went live and we had a great time. So come join me this Friday. This Friday, October 24th, 6pm Eastern, 9pm Pacific. I'll be live in the comments for the premiere. Join me. Let's have a good time. And then they come in and they say, Mr. Sickler, you are lucky to be alive. You have massive pulmonary embolisms. They traveled through your heart. Your heart is swollen twice its size. And we're going to be honest with you, the next 48 hours are touch and go. You're probably going to want to make some calls. And I was like, my phone's dead. I was playing on three hours. You know what I'm saying? I came in with it on 66%. I didn't even bother gassing it up. And I knew things were about to get wild when I heard one of the surgeons say, well, Mr. Sickler, you and your phone are about to have a lot in common. I said, oh, my God, what kind of bedside manner is that for somebody with blue shield silver? You talking to me like I got the bronze package right now and I'm not really feeling it. So back your Kaiser Permanente attitude up and recognize my second tier status.

[Dolph Lundgren]

The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler.

[Ryan Sickler]

Welcome back to the Honeydew, y'. All. We're over here doing it in the night Pants studios. I'm Ryan Sickler. Ryan Sickler.com and Ryan Sickler on all your social media. And I'm starting this episode like I start them all with gratitude saying thank you. Thank you for watching this show. Thank you for supporting this show. The guests. I love doing this. And you know what we do here? We highlight the low lights. Always say, these are the stories behind the storytellers. I'm very excited to have this guest on. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Dolph Lundgren. Welcome to the Honeydew Dolphin. I can't even believe you're sitting there right now.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Thanks.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm so stoked to have you here. I'll shut up right now and let you do your biz here. Before we get into anything, please promote it all.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Promote it all. Well, I have a few little things. I got a vodka called hard cut vodka. Potato vodka overproof, 90 proof, 45%. You know, potatoes creamier. Only about 1% of all vodkas in America made from potatoes.

[Ryan Sickler]

1%.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yes. Corn is. Tito's is corn like the other ones are. Grain is cheaper and easier. Potato was the original way and Swedish way, but we made it in Idaho.

[Ryan Sickler]

This is what I wanted to ask you. You're a Swedish guy. So why is there a difference in the way Idaho does it than Sweden does it? Because you say the original but you just.

[Dolph Lundgren]

No, not really. No, I don't think so. I think that the Idaho way has been really good. It's a very smooth vodka and it's. It's 45% so it has a kick. Like we said, hard cut, smooth finish. So it's been out for about five months here in California. We're in also in New York and we're going to Florida in, in about a month. So yeah, check it out. We take our vodka seriously, but we don't take the brand seriously. We try to have some fun.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's great. Where and can we find this in stores now yet?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, this is a bevmo and also a total wine. A total wine. Starting to. And we're in some good on premise accounts. Like we're at Cipriani, we're at Madeo, Tao Sky Bar.

[Ryan Sickler]

Come closer to the mic.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Sky Bar, Tao Medeo, you know, Cipriani Mr. Chow, we're. We're at some top restaurants in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood and also in Palm Springs. And we're also. We trying to kind of teach people that vodka doesn't have to taste like aviation fuel like most people think. It's got to do that thing in the back. Your throat, it is as smooth as the tequila and it's. People seem to like it a lot. So check it out. I'll give you the spotlight.

[Ryan Sickler]

I. Dude, I appreciate it. We'll see how it goes. Yeah, I. You just said something that resonated with me because tequila, I was. I'm a. I used to drink tequila a lot. Yeah, and me too. I didn't know what good tequila was. I dated a girl years ago who worked at a tequila bar. And she goes, let me give you a shot of this up here. And they move a ladder over, she climbs up. And I tell you, Dolph, when I had that, I was like, okay, this must be what it's supposed to be like. We get the dumbed down version in the grocery stores or wherever, but man. And then she gave me that vodka. Just. Just velvet, no burn, no nothing. And then I also think, like, I could have 40 shots of this. I feel like, you know, or at least 15.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, yeah, that's same with vodka. People just aren't really educated about it. Like tequila, when I was. When I was a teenager, you had. If you got hold of tequila, it was, you know, you didn't care what it tasted like. Yeah, that tastes terrible. You just want to get drunk.

[Ryan Sickler]

Beer, all of it.

[Dolph Lundgren]

But there's some more sophisticated way to drink it. And there's a more sophisticated way to drink vodka and do it with hard cuts. Boom. So that's one thing I'm working on. I have a documentary that's in the works coming out sometime early next year.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that going to be about your life or are you producing a documentary about something?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Co produced documentary about me.

[Ryan Sickler]

About you. Okay.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, I actually. It was done by a Canadian company and then we had some problems in post production, so I kind of came in as a producer and helped with finding the proper editors and so forth. We're showing it at Newport Film Festival. Newport Beach Film Festival. That's in October. We also in Europe, in Italy, Turin Festival. We submitted to Sundance, see how that goes. And we're also being shown a Tiffany this week. The Toronto Film Festival. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

All right. And you have a book as well?

[Dolph Lundgren]

There's a book? Yeah, with Harper Collins. It's a. It's a autobiography I wrote to this guy. And it's also kind of focuses on my life. The last five years or so of my life have been kind of overshadowed by this cancer journey. I had medical adventure. That was the biggest challenge I've had so far in my life, even though I've been through a lot before that. And both the book and the documentary are kind of. Especially the documentary. We have to reframe it re. Because it was. Started shooting it while I was in that medic. In doing the treatments. Actually, I got the. The first cancer diagnosis just around the time we started shooting. So I didn't tell the producers for a while. For a long time. For about two years. So when I. When I finally told.

[Ryan Sickler]

Sorry, I gotta interrupt you. You're. You're telling me that you hid your diagnosis from the producers for two years while you were doing this documentary for four years?

[Dolph Lundgren]

How? Well, I just. I mean, I look good, so they could.

[Ryan Sickler]

But they weren't following you to see. We gotta get in the story.

[Dolph Lundgren]

No, they weren't following me around.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Oh, all the time. Because it's during COVID so during COVID you can't. Couldn't really be there all the time.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you were able to actually keep them shielded from it because.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, because I didn't know how serious it was, but when I realized it was quite serious, didn't have to bring them in on it.

[Ryan Sickler]

So let's jump back to the beginning for a second because you're just. I mean, you're an iconic figure from my goddamn childhood. I cannot believe you're sitting over there, brother. I mean, you're everything. You're an expendable. You're drago. You're all of it, brother.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Thanks.

[Ryan Sickler]

But let's find out a little bit about you. Tell me about your mom and your dad. What did mom do? What did dad do for a living?

[Dolph Lundgren]

My mom was a linguist in Sweden. I was born in Sweden, outside of Stockholm. My mom was a linguist. Came from a kind of upper middle class family. She studied in London and in France as well when she was young, right after the second World War. And her dad had this radio factory. They were making radio gramophones. Remember those big.

[Ryan Sickler]

The real pretty ones that.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, yeah. It was like a kind of like a piece of furniture. You may have seen it look like.

[Ryan Sickler]

A flower that came out.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, yeah. And they had like the gramophone in there. The record player had like a radio. He manufactured those. And my dad was an engineer. He was from the northern part of Sweden, from kind of a poorer part of Sweden and he came to Stockholm to study and then he worked for my, for his future father in law, my mom's dad. And okay, then he started dated, dating the boss's daughter.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh yeah, it happened the other way around. Not dating first, then hire by dad.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Oh, okay.

[Ryan Sickler]

All right.

[Dolph Lundgren]

He was hired by dad, then he dated the daughter. And then they got married and, and he was still studying at that time. And I was born after about two years of marriage in the 50s. So this is seven years after the end of the Second World War.

[Ryan Sickler]

And are you the first, your parents first child?

[Dolph Lundgren]

First, yeah, firstborn. So I, I realized later in life that I was born 12 years after they dropped the, the bomb on Hiroshima. So it wasn't that far. It was like if it would have happened now in 2013. So that's crazy. Right around the corner and that's crazy.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like that's longer than nine, 11 happened to go. It's crazy. I mean sooner closer than crazy. It's crazy.

[Dolph Lundgren]

So it was very recent. When I grew up in Europe where obviously millions of people had been killed. There was sort of. It was in the shadow of the second world War pretty much. And Sweden was a neutral country. It was never, Sweden was never invaded or didn't take part. It was kind of a neutral country who sheltered refugees and took in pilots, allied pilots, and got them back to England and so forth. But that's where I grew up.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

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[Ryan Sickler]

And what sort of dad was your dad? Was he a disciplinarian? Was he a strict guy? Was he.

[Dolph Lundgren]

My dad was a, was a character. He was also an army officer. Now in those days, everybody had to be in the armed services. We had conscription in Sweden after the war. He was a captain in the reserves. So he was an officer. I would go with him to different exercises, maneuvers, firing, live artillery and machine guns and all this. That's why I got interested in military matters. Later, of course, this kind of became part of my career playing soldiers. But my dad was a tough guy. He Was certainly traumatized from his background, from his upbringing. I realized that now he was the oldest, his family could only afford to educate one child out of four. So they sent him to school.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that right? That's how it worked?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah. Back in the. This is in the 40s.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Dolph Lundgren]

He was born in the 1920s, so he was in the world. He was, he was drafted during the Second World War. He was very young, but he was on the border, the Norwegian border, where the Germans were, you know, within eye distance of, of where they were stationed. And they kind of knew that if the, in Germany attacked Sweden that they would be the first to go because the German war machine was much more powerful in Sweden. So he always had that in the back of his head. But he was a disciplinarian. He was, he had some trauma. I don't know what it was, but something from his childhood. So he was, he had like a, a. He was bipolar, you would say like sort of a combination of bipolar and some kind of almost schizophrenia. So he was very violent towards my mother and beat her a lot and he beat me. I had three siblings, but he never touched them. It was just me and my mom.

[Ryan Sickler]

Were your other siblings you have any brothers?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yes.

[Ryan Sickler]

So it wasn't a boy girl thing?

[Dolph Lundgren]

No, it wasn't that. I think it was. I think I reminded him of myself. I reminded him of himself and I think also when I was young, I think I was quite strong willed. I probably didn't do what he told me to do all the time. I can't remember. And I think perhaps the fact that he was very insecure, I think as a man. And I think the fact that my mother had this baby boy who she probably, you know, was in love with, you know, and took care and was very kind of doting over me and I think he, he was jealous maybe too. There you go.

[Ryan Sickler]

And so you grow up. I've read you describe yourself as a runt and you had, you were, you were an allergy kid too.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, I had.

[Ryan Sickler]

I can't imagine you ever being. Tell me that first before you tell me when you hit that growth spurt.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Well, I think what happened was partially. I was a late developer, as they say, but I, I developed something called. It's a disease called croup. And something happens in your throat where you can't breathe properly. And I had something called false croup, which is something where they, it's not quite as severe. They don't normally. Otherwise the men have to cut your throat open and, and, and Put a breathing tube in. But for me, I just had asthma, very serious asthma. And I. When I did therapy much later, my therapist suggested that it could have been emotionally triggered because, you know, I think my dad probably started beating me when I was around three or four, something like that. And, you know, when you're that age and you have a big man come in your room and you can't escape and you can't fight back, obviously that you can develop some kind of psychosomatic conditions, but I think this is what it was maybe. So I had that. I was allergies and also I was kind of a bit sick, you know, from the allergies. I couldn't be out in the sun as much. And then the Nordic countries, you know, when the. When spring hits in April, May, all the pollen just comes out of nowhere for a few months. And then, you know, in September gets cold again. So it's very intense. And in that period when all the other kids were out playing, I couldn't be part of that. So I think I got a little bit weak from that. So, yeah, I would stay home, Paul, paint, listen to music, you know, played. I played some drums later and kind of entertain myself.

[Ryan Sickler]

And when do you hit that growth spurt and realize you're that dude? When does all that bullying or poking fun is all that stop?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Well, it was a gradual experience because.

[Ryan Sickler]

Also I. I apologize for interrupting. I read too, that you're. I didn't know how, like, experienced and how. What a badass you were. A martial arts as well. Coming up. So you're not just a big menacing figure. You also know how to use this frame.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Well, thank you. Well, that's how it started. I. I was in. I lived in Stockholm and my dad would beat it. He was beating me and I. My grades was really bad. I. I was skipping school, running away, drinking, smoking, trying to do anything to just dull the pain. And I think he realized when I was about 12 or 13 that I started growing. And I don't think he didn't want to get in a fight with a. With a young man or boy who was a larger person. You couldn't just slap around. So I think he decided at some point to get to send me off to his parents, my grandparents.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, he sent you Northern Sweden. Okay.

[Dolph Lundgren]

So when I got up there, I didn't have any. He wasn't around.

[Ryan Sickler]

How old are you at this point of 13?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Okay. Yeah, he wasn't there. And I. And I made friends with guys who were playing ice hockey and. And you know, Doing sports. And that's when I started studying, getting good grades. And also I did start doing some judo and then later karate. And then I started growing as well, you know, doing push ups in my room. It was like the classic, there was a sort of a course you could take, you know, in May, a mail order course like Charles Atlas kind of, you know, the, what was it called? The, it was the bully on the. Of the beach, you know, similar thing in Sweden where you could train at home. So I started doing that. So it was about 15, I started growing and I did karate and you know, my first aim was to defend myself against my dad or beat him up to get him back for everything. But by the time I was 17 or so, I, I, you know, part of martial arts is, you know, there's a certain non violent attitude in the back of it. I mean you're, you're supposed to have respect for everybody and you're not supposed to. It's a non aggressive sort of sport. You know, you learn to defend yourself but you're not supposed to just hit somebody for no reason. Right. So eventually I sort of gave up the idea of beating him up and I just pursued it as a sport, as a, as a competitive sport.

[Ryan Sickler]

So dad was just a stepping stone on the way into this.

[Dolph Lundgren]

So when I was about 17, I started growing really fast. You know, when you're in a movie theater and you get up and you almost pass out because your circulatory system hasn't kept up.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm 5 10. I've never had that experience in my life. With your growth spurt you stood up, you would get lightheaded.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Oh yeah, for sure. Sure for sure. Yeah. Never.

[Ryan Sickler]

I've never been lightheaded from that.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Well, there it comes, man. Yeah. So that's kind of how it started.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Then I, I started lifting some weights to kind of help me in my sports, to help me pursue martial arts. And I eventually it became kind of part of my life. It still is. And you know, by the time I was 20, 20, 21, I was Swedish champion and British open champion. And later I became champion of Australia, European heavyweight champion. So I won a lot of tournaments and that was the first time I kind of had a little bit of fame. Like I felt it something.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. I mean that's not just local. You're winning on different continents.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah. Where people kind of, I mean you're not a movie star, but you're, you feel special. And obviously my dad, when he beat me, he always said that I was useless and you're never going to be anything. And, you know, very, very, you know, what do you call it, how you. How you bring up a kid to feel good about himself. Now, he always told me, like it was. I was useless. So basically I had that going against me all the time. And it's quite powerful when you're a young kid, you know, because you always love your parents no matter what they do. So you kind of. You have. You're torn between the love for them and then the fact that they're abusing you in some way. And I think it's. It's tough for a young developing mind to sort of get, you know, to get around that, to deal with that. You, you know, you develop traumas and PTSD and things like I've dealt with for many, many years afterwards.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, it's a. It's a really tough thing because first you have to understand and accept what is happening to you.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Then there's two kinds of people. There's the US's of the world who take that and use it as fuel to push us forward. Other people, they dive into drugs or whatever to cope, and, you know, they get lost. So it's. It's a really complicated thing because first you got to get your mind around it, and then you got to figure out how to use that to move forward. You've done that. You know, your dad saying you're used to. My mother used to say the same thing to me. And I was just. Something in me always knew I wasn't. I don't. This. No. What's. What's being said to me right now is hate and anger. Something in me always knew it wasn't true. I didn't believe that. I didn't believe what this person was saying. Thank God, you know. Thank God you didn't believe it.

[Dolph Lundgren]

No, I didn't believe.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're not sitting here right now. You're probably not even alive.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Me, I wouldn't have been alive. The thing is, you. You. You internalize it. Still internalize it on some level. So even if you kind of know they're wrong, but it does have some impact. And I think, you know, like my therapist told me much later, if you're. If you're a soldier in Iraq and you're in a foxhole and you're being shot at every day, and you may think tomorrow is my last day because my buddy got shot yesterday, and then you survive tomorrow, and then the next day, it's the same thing. Well, at night, you go to bed thinking the same thing, but while you're there and the adrenaline is pumping and you got your 60 machine gun and you're like fighting everybody off, and there's no time to think about it. But when you get back stateside, and now you're supposed to be a normal civilian and there is no threat anymore, and there are no buddies anymore, and that's when that. All those feelings come back up and that damage that was done because you're not in a safe environment.

[Ryan Sickler]

When does a man like yourself, a strong man, you're also from a different generation, allow yourself to say, I need help. I need therapy. Let me talk to somebody. Because we're not. You're a little older than me, and I'm not even from the generation. I'm from the walk it off generation. You got a problem? Fucking walk it off. You know what I mean? When do you hit that point?

[Dolph Lundgren]

I think it started. Well, first I did martial arts to get it out of my system, to express it physically, but I didn't really know what was going on. And then I did acting because when I took my first acting class, I. I was able to, you know, be emotional, to cry, to let my emotions go and feel vulnerable and. And express that. So that was, you know, that was liberating. But it's like somebody said, you're hijacking your trauma to be a good fighter or to be a good actor. It doesn't mean that when you're. When you're in. The movie's over, you still don't have those feelings. As, you know, we've seen many people in the show business, they, you know, they end up hurting themselves or, you know, their lives could be very miserable, even though they're very talented. So then what happened was I got divorced just as much later when I was in my 50s, I was divorced. I got divorced when I had two kids. It was very, very traumatic for me. Part of the reason for the divorce was because I was drinking too much. I was. I was partying, I was staying out late. I. I wasn't a good dad in some ways. You know, I was traveling, doing movies. Now, granted, my wife and kids, you know, they lived a very good life. I mean, financially and so forth, but I wasn't really available for them. So the marriage fell apart. And then I met this other woman, and I didn't want to ruin that one, too. And then I started thinking. Well, you know, I was actually at that point in my life, I was. I went on some benders, were. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it back alive, you know, to my family. And I, after that I realized that I'm gonna, I need some help. So I, I started meditating first, actually started meditating. And then through that, through somebody there, I, you know, I got introduced to a therapist and, and the guy interesting enough was he also had a problem with his dad when he was younger. I get close to him and he was like a, he was a competitive marksman. Shooter.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Dolph Lundgren]

So he was kind of a bit of a macho guy and he'd kind of gone that direction. So he had really understood me, you know. So he started kind of digging into what happened to me. And through those, those sessions with him over, let's say a six, seven year period, I finally, it's like somebody explained, it's like you have a lump of ice in your chest and slightly, it kind of slowly melts. And finally you're not reacting from that. Otherwise you do make it. Only you're, you know, reacting to things in your life and making decisions, but you're not making the decisions. There's, there's other things making decisions. And you're like, what the am I doing? You know, this is not very smart. And then I make another bad decision. And when that goes away, you can kind of, you're free to kind of live your life the way you should have done it from the beginning. And that's what happened to me.

[Ryan Sickler]

Good for you though. You didn't start therapy till your 50s?

[Dolph Lundgren]

No, I started like, yeah, probably when I was about. Yeah, I was in my 50s. Early 50s, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

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[Dolph Lundgren]

You.

[Ryan Sickler]

You know, we believe in therapy. I'm all about getting in that gym, too. But hey, work that mind out as well, all right? The right therapist can change everything. And Better help has over 12 years of experience in matching people to the right therapist. Better Help is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. This World Mental Health Day, we're celebrating the therapists who've helped millions people take a step forward. If you're ready to find the right therapist for you, BetterHelp can help you start that journey. Our listeners get 10% off their first [e-mail] Honeydew that's better h lp.com Honeydew now, let's get back to the do. Let's talk about the cancer because obviously cancer doesn't give a. About your financial status, your health, Nothing.

[Dolph Lundgren]

No.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you're, you know, you're fucking Dolph Lundgren. You're that dude. And then you get diagnosed with cancer. How does that affect you?

[Dolph Lundgren]

It's. It's brutal. I mean, everybody. Cancer is like one of the worst words people anybody can hear. If you hear the word cancer, it's like, is that sentence.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did you feel that way when you heard the word?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, I. I was in. I was actually in Sweden and I was. Ten years ago, I was in Sweden and I was doing this gumball race. You know, I was going to be in a Ferrari with my young oldest daughter driving from Stockholm through Norway. Europe flight is San Francisco, go to LA and go to end up in Vegas.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, it's a whole little, like, Cannonball Run type thing.

[Dolph Lundgren]

They do it.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, yeah.

[Dolph Lundgren]

5,000 miles in seven days. Days. Okay. So, you know, I was very excited about it. Then I'D done some martial arts training and I, and I had, I. And I, I saw some blood in my urine. So I was like, I'd had it before, like from a punch or something. That can't happen, you know, So I, I did a scan and, and the guy said, you know, we found a tumor on you, on your kidney and it could be cancer, you know, and then, then I have to get on the rail, do the race the next day. And as I was sitting in that damn car, of course I didn't tell my daughter and I was just. Oh, my God.

[Ryan Sickler]

Just sitting in the car.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, I know. Oh, stuck in the car.

[Ryan Sickler]

Stuck in. There was like a perfect storm.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Just when you thought you for torture chamber. It was like a torture.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's like, hey, here's this. Go think about that while you're stuck.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Now here's something for you to think about. Basically your funeral estate planning. While everybody was partying around me and getting drunk. And I know it was, it was the worst. It was terrible. I was, I was a wreck. And I, I got back to la.

[Ryan Sickler]

Five days of that too.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Holy.

[Ryan Sickler]

Not one day. You got a whole week basically of just, just thinking of that.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Oh, man. So I was, I flew back to LA and I got, you know, so a surgeon at Cedars and they, and I had surgery and they said, oh, we got it, you know, we removed it and now you're gonna have to do tests, scans for five years. And I did them. And, you know, I still knew I didn't feel 100%, but I try to tell myself everything was fine.

[Ryan Sickler]

But what can I ask you? What are you feeling that's off? You know what I'm saying? Like, what, what was going on where you're like, I don't know. I still. Something different.

[Dolph Lundgren]

What was happening was I still wasn't treating. I wasn't really. I wasn't really that good to myself. I was abusing myself.

[Ryan Sickler]

Still. You were drinking with the can.

[Dolph Lundgren]

I was training too hard. I was not sleeping enough. I mean, I was doing crazy stunts. I was almost like I was trying to prove to myself, you know, now, now I'm. Well, so now I'm going to go twice as hard, spar twice, but even younger guys and, And I just, I was pushing my body, so I, I was taking some steroids as well.

[Ryan Sickler]

Were you tired all the time?

[Dolph Lundgren]

No, no, I was jacked all the time up, but on a deep level, kind of exhausted because I don't know if you've been there, but if you're. You Know, there are a lot of guys who go to the gym and push themselves and it's. But it's. It's like building a house on shaky ground, you know, because you're not really calm, you're not stable emotionally. Your body is not really happy. You're just pushing it. And that could be very dangerous, I think. And I, I think I did some of that. So whether that had anything to do with it, I don't know. But, you know, during COVID and I met my current wife, I was in Sweden again, just by coincidence, and I. And then they found some more tumors and that's when it started. That was the, the bigger battle started there.

[Ryan Sickler]

So what do they tell you then? That you're doing chemo? What do you, what do you have to do for this?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Well, first they want to remove those tumors. They did. And then.

[Ryan Sickler]

So now you have a second surgery.

[Dolph Lundgren]

That took a piece of the, of the kidney, just a small piece of that out. Second surgery. I was still pretty. I was still pretty strong. Went hiking. After a few, few weeks lifting weights, I felt pretty good, you know, and I was directing a movie in Alabama. Then the, the doctor calls and says, we missed something on one of your scans. You know, there's another tumor in your liver. I was like, okay. And I said, well, we could take that out. But then when I get back to la, it gotten too big. They couldn't take it out. So now.

[Ryan Sickler]

Can I ask how long from them saying, hey, we missed it. We'll take it out when you get back to you getting back?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, three months. Damn.

[Ryan Sickler]

And it got that big that they couldn't even do surgery.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah. And. Yeah, and the big shocker is about to come. So they, they basically said, okay, we cannot take it out. We need to do systemic therapy, which is immunotherapy. You get, you go in once a week and they, you give. They give you immuno. Immuno enhancing drugs that helps your immune system to fight off the cancer. I took that and they have, you know, the side effects got pretty bad. In a few months, I started losing weight. You know, you, you get very good sourcing hands and feet and your mouth, you can only eat. You can't eat cold food or hot food. You have to eat like.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that right? I never knew that.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Why soft food? Your. Your mouth gets very sensitive. Oh, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

To this particular drug. Basically like a room temperature sandwich.

[Dolph Lundgren]

No, not even sandwich. It's. It's too rough to bite.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, wow.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, like ban.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like also mushy. Like.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah. Like apple cider sauce and like room temperature apples. And a kid. Like a kid. Yeah, I know. No, and this is, this is 2021. So I'm still kind of working out and you know, nobody knows about it. And then it gets worse. So I started losing weight, like lost about 20 pounds. You know when people start noticing it. So they cut back on the drugs at that point. And our oncologist wasn't a very nice guy. It wasn't easy to. He wasn't very open. Like Emma, my wife asked a bunch of questions but he wouldn't really answer. And you got the feeling that the prognosis wasn't very good. But he didn't say anything. And then we all went to London and I was working on Expendables 4 and also Aquaman, the sequel.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's right, Aquaman.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah. Because I was in the first one in Australia which I shot 2018. So we had a doctor in London and he kind of sat me down and said, you know, get. Have a man to man talk here. This is really serious. You know, you, you know these drugs aren't working and there's one more drug you can take. And, and, and, and Emma found out too. So now we're kind of both depressed and.

[Ryan Sickler]

Why, why are they not telling you this in the States? Yeah, they know it.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Why are they not wanting to verbally tell you?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, because the guy we, I was with was not very. He wasn't a good doctor. You know, he was, he had a certain style of like, like the old school doctors don't tell the patients everything. They don't communicate. You know, when you're a kid like you go to even like a school teacher, they wouldn't like, they didn't think you were worth. Tell the truth. Right. So he didn't tell us the truth. The guy in London was really cool. I still friends with that guy. He, you know, he basically told us it's kind of serious, we have one more drug you can take. And. And then I called him after work.

[Ryan Sickler]

Can I ask you again? Sorry. One more drug.

[Dolph Lundgren]

We.

[Ryan Sickler]

And if that doesn't work, well then.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Then, then you're, then the is no hope.

[Ryan Sickler]

Damn. So you're, you're hitting your last hope at this point.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, I started getting there and then I called him one day after work, after, after the movie set and it was tough because I'm, I'm in, I'm in, in this three layer costume which is like a, there's like a lot. This is an Aquaman. There's Like a in layer layer that has like some extra muscles on it. Then there's another outer layer of like kind of plastic that looks like, like scales, you know, get fish kind of. I'm playing this king and it's like a green shining costume. And on top of that there's armor, right? Golden armor. So I'm in this freaking costume with fins on my feet. You can hardly walk. Delivering all this dialogue. I'm the king, right? To have all the freaking dialogue.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm gonna go watch it again.

[Dolph Lundgren]

This story called Kidman. And you know, and of course Jason Mo. I'm in there trying to make this make sense. And then, you know, the, the drugs makes you want to go to the bathroom a lot.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, is that not to go to.

[Dolph Lundgren]

The bathroom in that suit? You can't. You have to have two people to get it off you to go. So I'm in there like while they're doing like 50 takes. James Wan, the director, like 40 or 50 takes and stuff, right. And like, you know, basically having to hold it back, you know, and that was tough. I mean, it was a tough experience. Nobody knew about it.

[Ryan Sickler]

I was just about to ask had you still hadn't told anyone?

[Dolph Lundgren]

No, I told anybody. And then they were shooting the doc at this point too, and. Oh yeah, what happened was I gave the guy call the doctor after work one day because I didn't want Emma to be there. And I, I told him, you know, you know, just man to man, what, what's the situation here? How long do you think I've left? And he said, maybe three years. And I said, that's it? And he says, yeah, sorry, but you know, you shouldn't be doing this movie. You should be, you know, you should be hanging out with your family. And. But I heard in his voice that maybe it was more like one year or something. Like, so now I'm in this kind of a shock state finishing this movie.

[Ryan Sickler]

How much more do you have to go when you hear this?

[Dolph Lundgren]

About two months.

[Ryan Sickler]

So two months on, you got a 36 month sentence. Yeah, but you think it's 12.

[Dolph Lundgren]

I think it's 12.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you got 10 left when you're done with this movie if things don't turn out.

[Dolph Lundgren]

So I got some there. And I'm like, you know, I told a few people in my, I told my manager, I told a good friend of mine, his name is Larry Witzer, who's, who was my business manager at the time. And you know, he played in a golf tournament with a guy from UCLA a Doctor and he had said, you know, my friend is kind of sick and kidney cancer and friend of mine, and is there anybody you could recommend? So for Second Opinion. And this guy recommended this female doctorate, ucla. And so I have to get all my charts, all the scans and everything together and email it to her while I'm in London. I'm up at night doing this and I'm thinking it's a waste of time, you know. But I'm doing it anyway because I'm supposed to have the best guy here already. Except they didn't call me once in like four months. Nobody had checked on me or anything. The guy, the other guy mistakes. So I was a little bit concerned, a little upset about that. So I called this other doctor. I sent her all the information. She's a. She's a female doctor from Greece originally, but went to Harvard. Her husband is another Harvard guy and they have a cancer research company or he does the husband. Anyway, she's ucla. And, you know, and we. We spent the Christmas, that Christmas together. Me, my wife, at her parents in Norway. She's from Norway. And it was like she said later, where she had thought. She told me later that was we. Our last Christmas together. And I kind of felt the same way, but nobody said anything about it. We couldn't really talk about it so much because she's a bit younger, quite a bit younger than me. And then I went to see this doctor back in LA at ucla and it was stuck on a Monday, and I had like an appointment on Tuesday with. Or the other. Same day with that other guy. So I had to cancel the appointment. I said, you know, I. I can't make it on Monday. And they got really upset. Oh, you know how much time we spent working you in? And I'm like, hey, I've been gone for four months, you haven't called me once. And I'm fucking dying here and you're complaining to me about your appointment schedule. Hang on a minute. Get your.

[Ryan Sickler]

Head out.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Get your head out of your ass and get your. You know, this is a page.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's your priority stretch. This is a. This is how they're talking to someone who's on limited time.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Also, you know, like, what the.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Where. Where's your compassion to have in yourself?

[Ryan Sickler]

Right. Yeah, you know it. Because you're going to a better doctor already.

[Dolph Lundgren]

So I went. I went into the other doctor. You know, we met her and she was really nice and she said, you know. Oh, she said, you know, as soon as I got these results from you she hadn't even met me yet. She said there was something isn't right about this case. So she'd gone back and she had looked at the biopsies that they had it at the other hospital and she said something isn't right so we'll do another biopsy. Which we did. And she said, I think you've been misdiagnosed. And I was like, we were just looking at each other like. And then we came back a few like a week later and she said I was right, you were misdiagnosed. You don't have a classic kidney cancer. You have another mutation that's very unusual, but it was obvious in the biopsies that you had a dismutation and there. Obvious? She said, yeah, obvious. You saw it right away and it was there. And because I ordered biopsies from back in 2015 and it's the same. They were also showed the same thing. They just hadn't looked at it properly. So there was a mutation that there. She said there are five drugs against this that have been used for like 30 years and we're going to put you on one of them. So she put me on one of the drugs. I immediately got rid of the other Doctors and in 20 minutes I had five new doctors at UCLA. They put me on that drug and within like two weeks the tumor started shrinking.

[Ryan Sickler]

Really?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah. And within, then I did another movie and within seven months they were 90% gone.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you're feeling okay during this time enough to do another film? I know that's, that's hard ass work on a body.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, I know I did it because.

[Ryan Sickler]

Hours suck and, and you know, I.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Wanted to like, you know, keep your mind off my mind off it. So basically I went through that treatment and this is 2022. In 2023 they removed all those dead tumors with cryoablation. They freezed them out. And 2023 I went through another. I went did another film in South Africa and then I got sick from one of those cryoablations. By this time I'm cancer free, but I got sick from a side effect from. I had an abscess in my liver and was really sick for about six months.

[Ryan Sickler]

Damn.

[Dolph Lundgren]

I was on antibiotics, intravenous antibiotics for six months. And then I 2024, beginning of 2024, everything was gone. And I started training again. And since then I've been, you know, they call Ned. No evidence of disease.

[Ryan Sickler]

And how, how long do you have to go before they say hey? Because I think my friend's mom had Breast cancer. And she was a seven year window maybe of cancer free. And then you're not, you're, you're in better, you're in good shape.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Well, you know, I have a new therapist. It's called survivorship therapy. And you know, there's one thing that is certain. If you're a human being, only one thing is certain is that you're going to die. You, me, the people outside. It's just a matter of when, right? So some of us will die from cancer, some will get hit by a bus, who knows? But the thing is, the difference is when you have. Some will die in the ring getting.

[Ryan Sickler]

Killed by a Russian fighter, some will.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Go to war, some will be 100 years old.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you know, but thank God. Listen, here's the other thing.

[Dolph Lundgren]

So the thing is, there's nothing like to beat cancer. It's not really. They don't. You, you don't think of it that way. You think of it as, you know, you know, I could die from cancer, I could die for something else. But the difference is that we all, it's like you say, everybody can joke, say, well, you know, we could all get hit by a bus tomorrow. But if you've had cancer, you have seen the bus, you know, the number of the bus, it's a little different. But basically for me right now, you know, I can train on almost as strong as I was before.

[Ryan Sickler]

Wow. And you're how old?

[Dolph Lundgren]

67.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you're cancer free.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Cancer free. And, you know, and I have something to share with people and, and I try to help other people.

[Ryan Sickler]

I was gonna ask the same thing. Yeah, you do.

[Dolph Lundgren]

I'm doing. Going through a lot of that, especially with a doc. I have other friends that. I'm just like one guy now who I'm, who I, you know, try to support him, you know, he's in, he's three years after me, you know, I'm three years ahead of him, you know, and I talked to him, trying to make it feel better, try to help him with his, you know, to explore different second opinions and so forth. And, and that's where I'm, that's where I'm at right now.

[Ryan Sickler]

Good for you, man. I'm very happy for you.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, thanks.

[Ryan Sickler]

Also good for you for not taking no for an answer. Like I, I say all the time on this show, you know what they call the guy who finishes last in med school? Doctor. Yeah, you had a shitty one. You had a shitty one. He's a doctor. He's a doctor, but he's Not a fucking good one.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, you're right. There's a lot. Call the plumber over.

[Ryan Sickler]

And I say all the time to you, got to be your own advocate, you know? You know what's going on inside you. Just because this professional is saying you're wrong doesn't mean you're wrong. No, does not. So good for you, because that's. If you don't go find this lady.

[Dolph Lundgren]

No. I would have been dead.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're done. All because. All because of a misdiagnosis.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yes. Somebody.

[Ryan Sickler]

And then you think, how many people have that. Has that happened to?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, too. A lot of people.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, I'll bet.

[Dolph Lundgren]

And hopefully the second opinion, which is. It's difficult because you're. You're in somebody's under somebody's care, and you. You don't want to upset them. You don't want to. You don't want to make them mad at you.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're also not a doctor, and I don't want you to think I'm telling you how to do your job here, but.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, and it's a very tough. It's a tough situation for the patient, you know, because, you know, it's very hard to be an advocate sometimes. I was lucky. I was. You know, for me, it was just lucky. That guy played golf with somebody. And this other doctor was an extraordinary. This woman, Alexandra is her name, she was an extraordinary individual who is very, very smart. And she's. She doesn't just take things at face value. She really looks at it like a real scientist. You know, I mean, there is life, physicists, and then there was Einstein. Right. Same education, you know? You know, he just had.

[Ryan Sickler]

But here's my thing, too. That lady did her. I'm not saying she's smarter or anything. She just did her job better. You said they had the same set of the same scans? Yeah, from 2015. Same information she did. And right away, she's like, oh, no, no, no, no. Just looking at all this, it's this. This guy probably didn't know it all. Didn't even look at your page.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, it's like they say, you know, great.

[Ryan Sickler]

What's his name? Let's out him right now.

[Dolph Lundgren]

They said, what is it? A. A good doctor treats the. The disease, and a great doctor treats the patient.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's right.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, that's right. So it's like, you know, everybody's different.

[Ryan Sickler]

Cancer survivor Dolph Lundgren. Hell, yeah. How's that feel?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Feels good, man. Yeah. I mean, it changed my Life, I mean, I. I think. And the one thing I talked to my therapist about, my survivorship therapist is like, if cancer had not come into my life, I may have killed myself doing something else. Being reckless, you know, physically abusing myself. Steroids and training or something. Because I was. I had this sort of death wish kind of attitude from the beginning. That's why I was a good fighter and, you know, you know, good at doing crazy stunts and stuff like that. I mean, you have to have a little wild hair in there somewhere, but, you know. But no, I. If it wasn't for cancer, maybe I would have been dead anyway, so it saved my life in a strange way.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's great to hear also.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Good for you for having that outlook. I hear you on that. Yeah, I do.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Sometimes you look back at some of the worst things. You're like, if that doesn't happen, I'm not here.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. Good for you.

[Dolph Lundgren]

I think so. Thanks, man.

[Ryan Sickler]

No, I. I wanted to ask you a couple more questions. So I read a story. We'll shift gears, go a little lighter here. I don't know if this is.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Sorry about this cancer.

[Ryan Sickler]

No, this is what the show is. Do not apologize for your kids.

[Dolph Lundgren]

You have some protein here.

[Ryan Sickler]

What year was it? Here, see, May 2009 is a story I read. Three Mask Burglars Break into your home. You're not there.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

They rob your home. Is your wife at the time there?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yes, she's home.

[Ryan Sickler]

So it's a home invasion. And they. Sounds like. Saw family photos around the house, like, oh, this is Dolph Lundgren's house. And they just got the. Out of there. Is that accurate?

[Dolph Lundgren]

A little bit like that, yeah. More or less. Yeah. They gave back some watches.

[Ryan Sickler]

No, you got shit back.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

I just assumed they real. They stopped halfway through and hauled ass. I didn't know you got back. That's definitely what happened.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Well, lucky I wasn't there or, you know, would have been. Would have been ugly.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's crazy, dude. I didn't know you got back. That's definitely. Oh, it's too good, man. That's too good.

[Dolph Lundgren]

All right.

[Ryan Sickler]

Here's something I really want to ask you. You're.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yes.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're such a. An icon. You're, you know, is your first big. Your first big breaks, the Russian and Rocky.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah. I had a small break before that in the Bond movie with Roger.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's right. You were in his. His last one. He was. That was his last boss, I think, right?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah. Yeah. You took kill. But that was Just a walk on part because my girlfriend at the time, Grace Jones was in it. Yeah, Rocky was my first break. It was a great role, obviously, well written. Stallone.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you're not even Russian. No, Swedish.

[Dolph Lundgren]

But you know, I look the part, so.

[Ryan Sickler]

And, and I. I read that you audition. They passed first, but there were. I don't know. Again, the Internet's wrong, but 5,000, is that about.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, so that's what Sly told me.

[Ryan Sickler]

He beat out 5,000 guys.

[Dolph Lundgren]

He was looking for a lot of. I mean, the Rocky series was very successful. And Rocky 3 was a film I saw when I was fighting in Australia. I remember I was listening to Eye of the Tiger and little did I know I was going to be in the next one. Crazy enough only a few years later. But he was. Yeah, he was looking at a lot of different people. Fighters and Russians. Non Russians.

[Ryan Sickler]

What made him come back to you after passing the first time?

[Dolph Lundgren]

What happened was he didn't see me the first time. I was a casting agent in New York.

[Ryan Sickler]

Gotcha.

[Dolph Lundgren]

And then he got my photo through his buddy John Herzfelder is a director. A friend of his got my photo and then I get called in. I met him. Paramount Studios. He had long hair, was going to do Ramble too. He was all tanned. And I got starstruck, you know. And he told me I got 5,000 guys up for this role. And, you know, and then I put on some weight, you know, so like I was a bit skinny, my upper body.

[Ryan Sickler]

Were you a fighter then or were you more martial arts?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Martial arts.

[Ryan Sickler]

Were you a boxer?

[Dolph Lundgren]

I was a martial arts champ who was trying to be boxer.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Dolph Lundgren]

In New York. So I was training.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you were already trying to box a bit?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, okay. I was training at least this gym with Jerry Cooney and back in those days. And then I had to practice a monologue. And then I had to do screen tests later that year. And, you know, I was mean to Russian guys left. But they were doing it like a Russian Mr. T. I will break you. I will crush you.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, yeah.

[Dolph Lundgren]

You know. And I decided to just play it very cool, internal. And with my acting coach in New York, he was very smart, you know, he said, you know, you don't have to do anything. You're. The look is so strong. Just stand there.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's a great call.

[Dolph Lundgren]

I must break you. Just keep it internal, you know, so that's a great call. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And just, just. He's just calm. Psycho.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's way better. Yeah, it's More menacing and terrifying than some jackass bouncing around the ring in front of me.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, it is.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is, man, like, holy. Who's this guy?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, I know, I know.

[Ryan Sickler]

So I wanted to ask you, because I mentioned before we recorded. This is 85.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Mikhail Gorbachov now is in power in Russia. We're trying to get along with the Russians a little bit here, but there's still a lot of the. And I know the message at the end is we all can change is the whole thing. But after you do that role, are you getting the. The death threats? Are you getting hatred? What is happening to you after that? Like, from the people, not the industry, the people in the street.

[Dolph Lundgren]

People in the street. It was. It was mixed. I mean, one way, I sort of portrayed as Frankenstein's monster, and Frankenstein is the Soviet state, and the monster is kind of. You feel sorry for the monster the way the story went. So I think some people, especially the young ladies, kind of liked my character because he was, like, kind of unreal looking, you know, and very fit. And. And there was a little bit of grumbling on the, you know, up in certain African American areas, you know, up north of 120.

[Ryan Sickler]

Why did you killed Apollo Creek? Yeah, killed.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Kill Apollo, man. Would you kill Apollo Creek for. Yeah, there's been.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're getting that when you're out the street now.

[Dolph Lundgren]

I get it once in a while, but. But I think what happened was you.

[Ryan Sickler]

Kill Paulo, man, they're doing that to you.

[Dolph Lundgren]

But I. I think, you know, most people, one know, it's a movie and two, you know, they kind of. They respect great athletes. So it was like. Like in the first picture, Apollo Creed was a bit of a dick right the way. But people were arrogant. But, you know, people still looked up to him because he was a world champ. And he, you know, he did beat Rocky in the first one. I mean, Rocky was the real emotional hero. Second one, you know, same thing again, but this time Rocky wins, but you still look up to Apollo. And the third one, he become. They become friends. And in our case, you know, we're not lose Mickey.

[Ryan Sickler]

You lose Mickey in the third, you lose Mickey. Yeah, you lose Mickey, but, you know, a big loss there.

[Dolph Lundgren]

But Apollo comes back and helps Rocky. And then, you know, in my movie Rocky 4, at the end, the way it's kind of the sort of subtext at the end is that, you know, we should all come together. And there were two girl two guys, you know, about 20 million or whatever he says, you know, so. And I'm Kind of there, looking all beat up. And you feel sorry for me with my Bridget Nielsen, my wife. And so I think, you know, there was something a little bit of hate in the beginning, but on the. On the whole, it was pretty good. I mean, as I did star in my next picture, you know, I was starring as he. Man, it was kind of an American hero.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. Masters of the universe, you know. So did you sustain any injuries? I read that you put Stallone in the hospital, Something about his heart. For nine days.

[Dolph Lundgren]

He went in the hospital. He got hit in the body a little hard.

[Ryan Sickler]

From you?

[Dolph Lundgren]

From me, I think, yeah, for sure. Nobody else hit me but me, but he told me what to do, so I just. I just did what he said, you know, hit me hard at all. And then he hit me, too. Really hard.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. Do you break any bones?

[Dolph Lundgren]

No, I had some injuries.

[Ryan Sickler]

There's no way to not get hit doing something.

[Dolph Lundgren]

I had some. I had a back injury that I.

[Ryan Sickler]

Still have a little bit left, you know, going in. You're gonna take some.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, yeah, for sure. But I was. I was young, strong, and, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

How old were you in that movie?

[Dolph Lundgren]

27, I think. And I was, you know, I had. I was used to fighting, you know, for real, you know, when you guys really try to knock you out. So for me was still. It wasn't. It was really tough, but it wasn't as bad as when you really. When you. When it's real, you know, so well.

[Ryan Sickler]

Your character's so, you know, well loved in the history of that movie. You came was a. Creed 2.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Creed 2.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. You're back.

[Dolph Lundgren]

And now kind of became friends some degree and Michael B. And all that. Yeah, it was. It was fun. It was fun to go back and. And actually, on the second the Creed 2, I was. I was able to kind of channel my dad a little bit.

[Ryan Sickler]

Tell me about that.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Well, you know, I have a son in the movie, and he. I'm kind of torturing him to. To kind of win back the belt and do what I couldn't do. And, you know, I was able to kind of play my dad to some degree. I mean, even my. My brother said when he saw the movie, he realized I was acting like our dad.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, did he?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did you tell him that's who I channeled for?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, I told him. Yeah. And it was quite powerful for me because it made me realize also, which I already done, but on a deeper level that, you know, like they say we're victims of victims. What did he go through when he was a little kid, you know, what happened to him, you know, And. And it was the same with my character Ivan Drago in Creed 2. Why did you know he had gone through so much pain that even the audience, I think, felt a little sorry for him. So it was almost like my relationship with my son in the movie mirrors my relationship with my dad. But in this tape, in this version, in the movie, we end up hugging. And I said, I say, you know, don't worry about it. It's okay. It's okay. He lost. But I say, it's like, I say, I love you. I don't care if you win or lose. But when I worked on that character, I was working with his coach, Larry Moss out of New York is really good. And he did say that if we set the character up, that Ivan Drago in the whole world is the last guy who will throw in the towel, will never give up. He said, if the. And the script, at the end of the fight, when I walk up to the ring and people think, what's he gonna do? Get in there himself or. And then I throw in the towel, it's gonna be like, whoa, you know, this is like, powerful. And it was. And then I hugged my son and I thought that was a great moment. You know, it's really. I could, I could. I was. I remember we shot the scene and I looked over in the audience and the extras, some of the girls were crying and it was good. You know, this is a.

[Ryan Sickler]

Thank you so much for doing this.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Thanks, man.

[Ryan Sickler]

Thank you so much. You don't even know. Last question. Advice you would give to 18 year old Dolph Lundgren?

[Dolph Lundgren]

18.

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, excuse me. That's the first time I've ever messed that up. 16. Why am I saying 18? 16 years old.

[Dolph Lundgren]

16. Okay. I would say, I would give him a big hug and say, don't worry, it's all going to be. Everything's going to be fine. Don't worry about it. Just be yourself and don't worry so much.

[Ryan Sickler]

Dude, that's great. You're the first person, by the way, say you would hug yourself. We were doing this for years.

[Dolph Lundgren]

I would.

[Ryan Sickler]

No one's ever first said I would hug. Yeah, that's a great answer. If. If I yell, throw the damn towel right now, will you say, if he dies, he dies right there. Will you do it?

[Dolph Lundgren]

Sure.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, yeah. Throw the damn towel.

[Dolph Lundgren]

If he dies, he dies.

[Ryan Sickler]

Dolph Lundgren, thank you so much. Please promote whatever you'd like. Again, your vodka. You've got a documentary. You've got a book at Harper Collins. Tell them everything here.

[Dolph Lundgren]

No, it's. You got it. That's it for now.

[Ryan Sickler]

Where can we get hard cut again?

[Dolph Lundgren]

You said bevmo and total great wine.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you're in some local restaurants here in la, in Beverly Hills.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Yeah, we're in Beverly Hills. All right. Chow at Tao, at Adeo, at Cipriani, at. Yeah, bunch of different restaurants. And soon to be in the Independence, too. Favorite liquor store will be right there.

[Ryan Sickler]

And your doc and your book, harpercott. What's the book called?

[Dolph Lundgren]

We haven't decided, really.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Dolph Lundgren]

But we have a couple of titles.

[Ryan Sickler]

All right.

[Dolph Lundgren]

The doc's called Dolph Unbreakable.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. Thank you so much, brother. It's a real pleasure to have you in here.

[Dolph Lundgren]

Thanks, man.

[Ryan Sickler]

As always, Ryan Sickler on all your social media. We'll talk to y' all next week.

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