The Expendables Press Conference

You know you’re out of place when the gentleman ushering you to the hotel conference room is wearing cufflinks that are more expensive than your entire ensemble. Did he really have to look me up and down with such disdain? Anyway thus began my first visit to The Dorchester Hotel to cover the press conference for The Expendables. The email from Lionsgate said to arrive at 11.15 for an 11.30 start. I got there at 11 and the place was already three quarters full. I ended up sitting near the back beside someone from Nuts magazine. I wanted to tell him that I’m much more of a Zoo Magazine kinda guy but I thought it best to keep that one to myself.

The panel consisted of Stallone, Dolph Lungdren and Jason Statham. The bulk of the questions were directed at Sly and this became a running gag throughout the whole event. Dolph Lungdren barely spoke but he smiled and laughed his way through the whole thing. Stallone was engaging and enthusiastic and had a great rapport with the assembled journalists and the atmosphere of the whole press conference was light and fun. The event was moderated by a woman from Lionsgate, the film’s distributor. We all waved our hands frantically to get her attention so as to ask our questions. Unfortunately, sitting near the back, Eggmag wasn’t able to get their question asked, despite much waving of hands, and, at one point, standing up and waving. So I’m afraid folks we’ll never know Sylvester Stallone’s take on internet hype and marketing of films in the face of a Q&A session he recently did with fans on Ain’t It Cool News. Which would have been a better question than some of the ones that were asked… I’m looking at you Miss How Does Your Faith Influence The Films You Make. I particularly liked Sly’s response to being asked if he feels the need to justify the violence in his films…

The moderator got the ball rolling with the first question. Enjoy…

MODERATOR. At the screening last week there was a massive round of applause before the film even started and as each star’s name appeared (in the credits) there were whoops of joy. To what extent does that level of excitement and expectation bring extra challenges or responsibilities to do something really special with the Expendables?

STALLONE. Well it’s like that around my house every morning, “Hey look it’s Dad, whoo!”

LAUGHTER

STALLONE. It’s A LOT of extra pressure. You know sometimes you have a major turkey and it’s not even Thanksgiving and you know it’s gonna be bad. But this time, this is the other end of the spectrum where there was a great expectancy and we thought, well gee, I wasn’t expecting this when we started making it so we better live up to this idea everyone has. It’s kind of complex, you know?

MODERATOR. And Dolph and Jason, how was it for you? Do you feel the expectation? Is there extra responsibility?

STATHAM. Well it’s all on Sly I’m afraid. So no.

LAUGHTER.

STALLONE. Oh just deflect it onto Sly.

STATHAM. Well that’s why you try to work with people who know what they‘re doing.

STALLONE. You better go work with Christopher Nolan pal. I’m guessing my way through this.

LAUGHTER.

At this point they opened it up to the floor.

QUESTION. Sly and Dolph, how would you compare your relationship now to the way it was 25 years ago when you did Rocky 4? Was it the same dynamic as before?

STALLONE. Well I never trained harder for a Rocky movie than I did for Rocky 4. And Dolph is brutal, he’s a world class athlete so we got to know each other pretty well. Then times change, we go through ups and downs, marriages, whatever, and meeting in this time it’s really great because, of all the actors I’ve worked with, Dolph has remained the most grounded, the most humble. Believe me actors can change a lot, it’s rough, it’s very competitive. But…yeah it has changed. I was dying to kick his brains in. He pounded me in that movie! (Rocky 4) I look at him now and I think, what was I thinking?! The guy is a monster! He put me in the hospital for days! So, you don’t think I had a grudge?! That’s why I shot you! (in The Expendables.)

LAUGHTER.

MODERATOR. And Dolph, would you like to comment any further?

LUNGDREN. No.

LAUGHTER.

QUESTION. Question for Sly…

STALLONE. Hey look, you gotta talk to these guys too!

QUESTION. What was it like managing all the testosterone on set? Did you have an all female crew to balance it out?

STALLONE. Female what?! No, well it got kinda aggressive. Let’s say Jason had an action beat. And he’s very physical, you’ll see in the documentaries, his hands were on ice, he was leaping onto baking hot ground over and over and he keeps wanting to do it and I had to say, “stop, stop.” So then the next fellow who has to do his stunt, he looks at Jason and says “Jason is really good, I’m going to kill this guy!” So it keeps building in competitiveness, men are just naturally competitive, they want to keep upping the ante. So, I don’t know if there were any women around. They were tough if there were, you had to be tough on this show.

QUESTION. And Jason and Dolph, was there anything you were scared of doing? Anything you won’t do?

STATHAM. I won’t wear a flowery shirt. I’m scared of that.

LAUGHTER.

STATHAM. No it’s all part of the job. The good thing about a film like this getting done and having Sly in control of it is that he shoots a lot of the stunts in the camera. A lot of the action directors of today tend to rely on the visual and it becomes boring because there’s a lot of CGI. When you do an action movie that requires real stunts, real action, it’s a great opportunity and that’s what we’re looking for, we can’t wait to get stuck in and do all that stuff.

QUESTION. Is there anyone you wanted to be involved that couldn’t do it or didn’t want to do it? And how did you get so many names in one film?

STALLONE. Well, at first it was just myself, Jason and Jet Li and it began to develop from that. And I was thinking of different things, you know originally I thought Ben Kingsley as the bad guy and Forest Whittaker, but then I thought that’s not gonna fly, let me just go really old school. So I called Dolph and he accepted immediately, he was very gracious. And then I thought, there aren’t a lot of young guys, bad asses out there today, guys who just want to get it on. Now, I believe the younger generation would like to show their metal, they want to prove themselves but there were just none around. So I went to the MMA and got a 5 time world champion who‘s at the top of his game, Steve Austin an incredibly powerful human being, you know, whatever you think about wrestling these are guys who are 250 pounds of solid muscle and it just kept building from there. I went to Van Damme and Steven Segal but they just had different ideas on their career, so…

LAUGHTER.

QUESTION. With a lot of high profile actors starring in flop movies, do you think star actors matter anymore?

STALLONE. Jason, do you want to answer that before you fall asleep?

LAUGHTER.

STALLONE. Stars don’t matter that much. Concept matters. The overall originality or reinterpretation of a really classic situation, like the way Star Wars went back to Joseph Campbell, all the variations on that, that’s what matters. Whereas when Dolph and I were starting out, this was a little before your time Jason. You were still… a thought. You were a concept.

LAUGHTER.

STALLONE. But with Dolph and I, they put you in a film and surround you with these guys, you were these unresolved characters but you can’t do that today. Rambo was a one man show but you can’t just do that now. But there is a lot more at stake today. Where you had maybe 400 films a year, now you have 250 so the stakes are very high and it’s almost a science now, what they make. So there’s no more “Oh I got a gut feeling. I’m gonna take a chance. I know everyone says no but I’m gonna try it anyway.” That’s gone. It’s all scientific. Every actor is weighed against what they can bring in from different territories. It’s like a math project.

QUESTION. Sly, how has your faith influenced the films you make? And do you feel the need to justify the violence in your films?

STALLONE. Well I’ve made a lot of career mistakes. Personal mistakes too actually. A lot. But I never started out to be an action actor, I was an ensemble actor. Rocky was ensemble, FIST was ensemble and Paradise Alley was ensemble. Then along came First Blood and there was the beginning of something unusual. Once all the dialogue was cut out, it was a very visual film. And I believe that the violence is very justifiable. One thing in my films, I only kill people that need to be killed. The ones that deserve it get it and the ones that go after women really get it. Really get it. If a man is really having his way with a woman, tearing her apart, wrecking her life, I’m not just going to shoot him with a bullet, that’s way too civilised. He’s gonna feel real pain and I think the audience wants that and feels it cathartically. Now, if you do that in every scene then it’s a horror film. But…yeah, I don’t feel guilty about it at all. I can feel guilty if you want me to?

LAUGHTER.

QUESTION. Jason, what was it like working with people you grew up watching?

STATHAM. It’s a situation where you get to know the real man behind the camera. It’s not the film maker anymore it’s just a regular guy. And to me that was the best part of working with Sly, getting to know him as a person. There’s no substitute for that.

QUESTION. Did you have to pinch yourself?

STATHAM. You can do that if you want, yeah.

LAUGHTER.

QUESTION. What was it like writing and directing and starring in the film? And Jason, what was it like acting with Sly as he’s directing you too?

STALLONE. My method is to learn everybody’s lines. Write the script, learn the entire script, that way I don’t have to think about it anymore, I can concentrate on the actors. Then, when we’re doing a scene, Jason will tell you, he’s always giving different lines on the spur of the moment.

STATHAM. Yeah, that’s the thing with having a guy who’s the writer and director because you have full liberty to change and improvise and you don’t normally get that, you get restrictions. Some guy wrote the script and he doesn’t want anyone to mess with that, the director isn’t allowed to mess with it, so it’s the best situation you can get.

STALLONE. For example, in the scene with the Somalian pirates, it builds up, “You want the money then come and get it.” Then, I go “BZZZ” everyone’s like, what’s that? “Say you’re getting a text.” And Jason is like, “What? I’m not gonna say that.” “Just say it!” “I’m not gonna say that!” And the camera is rolling the whole time. “So I’ll go BZZZ and then you say, I’m getting a text.” Camera is still rolling. So I go “BZZZ” and Jason goes, “I’m getting a text.” So now I look at Terry and I say, “Say it better not be from my wife.” And Terry is like, “What? I’m not saying that!” Oh just say it! So he says it. You have the formula, the blueprint, and once you have it then let’s just go and everyone ad libs. We had a nicely scripted piece but it didn’t have those eccentricities. Like when Dolph is hanging a pirate. It’s crazy but it’s memorable. Crazy is memorable.

MODERATOR. And Dolph, I think we wanted to hear from you on this?

LUNGDREN. Well they’re both right. I agree.

LAUGHTER.

QUESTION. Jason, this is your third film with Jet Li, how has working with him shaped your career?

STATHAM. Well none of the films I’ve done with Jet, apart from this one, have been any good.

LAUGHTER.

STATHAM. It’s difficult because my first movie with Jet wasn’t what it was supposed to be. But it gave me the opportunity to work with (fight choreographer) Corey Yuen which was instrumental in me playing in The Transporter films. But it’s coincidental that we’re doing another film together. It’s not that we beat Sly up and held him down, “We want to do a film together.”

STALLONE. But I think it’s a perfect example of how difficult it is to get an action film out there and have it performed and have the proper people involved. It’s great for Jason to see how it was done the old way.

STATHAM. And I’d like to add to that because the films I did with Jet were science fiction based and this harks back to the old school action movies, basically the ones that I am interested in doing.

QUESTION. There is a paternal theme in your films now, it’s the heart of Rocky Balboa and you have it with Julie Benz’s character in Rambo too. It seems that with The Expendables that you have a paternal relationship with Jason Statham’s character. How much of that is intentional?

STALLONE. It’s very intentional. You have to be age appropriate and he would be the protégé. He’s like the guy who will eventually take over but in the meantime I can tease him about his love life, not to take himself too seriously, stuff like that, like a father and son would do, but yeah it’s not by accident. You know, I always try to deal with redemption. I think everyone has regret that at one moment they made the wrong decision and sometimes you never get your life back on course. And that theme, from Rocky to Rambo to this, haunts me. Maybe I’m just mono-minded or limited but to me it’s inextinguishable. The thing with Mickey Rourke when he goes, “We used to be something and now we’re worth nothing because we gave up.” Okay so, redemption. How do I get it back? By doing something “charitable.” So that’s the theme, without overburdening the film and turning it into a talk fest. And you couldn’t understand what I’m saying anyway, so why bother doing that?

LAUGHTER.

QUESTION. With Rocky and Rambo there was a sense of closure, of you saying goodbye to your characters but I didn’t get that feeling with this. Are we going to see more action films from you or can we expect films with a bit more mind than muscle?

STALLONE. I don’t know, see, I’ve done my “mind movies” and I don’t think people are that interested in seeing me do that anymore. I’m past my prime in doing dramatic films. I think it becomes almost a pathetic cry out to be recognised as a serious dramaturge. I got my little moment, I’m very proud of the drama in Rocky Balboa, that’s about as deep as I can go, Copland too. I would much rather direct dramas. But The Expendables I would like to see go on. I’d like everyone to go on except him. (points at Dolph Lungdren.)

LUNGDREN. Because I talk too much.

QUESTION. Dolph, you’re in a similar position, you’ve directed five action films. Would you like to be completely behind the camera?

LUNGDREN. No, both are cool. One is easier than the other, behind the camera is more challenging. But I like to do both.

STALLONE. You know, contrary to how he looks, he’s really a very smart guy.

LAUGHTER.

STALLONE. Seriously! You know, here’s this beautiful guy, 6.5, Viking kinda guy, 29 inch waist, I’m going, he’s got to be a moron. But here he is, MIT graduate, Fulbright scholar, I’m going, him? Seriously? I mean, can you imagine him in a lab with test tubes going, “I will cure this rat of something.”

LAUGHTER.

STALLONE. He went from scientist to savage.

QUESTION. Why do you think audiences fell out of love with the action hero?

LUNGDREN. Well I don’t think people fell out of love, I think it just changed a little bit. And you know, it’ll change again.

STALLONE. That’s completly right. Every generation, including mine, has their own heroes. I mean I didn’t identify with John Wayne, I identified with James Dean. You have to find your own heroes and this generation has defined superheroes as their heroes. That’s why we (The Expendables) are kind of a novelty. That’s just the way it is. Look at music. It’s unrecognisable from what it was 20 years ago. That’s just the way it is. And then maybe it’ll go retro. Really, only Jason is current. Which is really lucky for us.

QUESTION. If you had made this film 20 years ago it would have cost you everything you ever owned…

STALLONE. (Laughing) Yeah!

QUESTION ….How did you get everyone now? Was it favours?

STALLONE. I could never have afforded Bruce and Arnold, that would have been the whole budget of the movie. Jason is a lot of money but he’s well worth it. £100 a week but worth every penny.

LAUGHTER.

STALLONE. But you’re right it would have been impossible if everyone had wanted their price. But things have changed, prices are dropping drastically. You’re lucky now just to get work. People that were getting 10 million are now down to 2 and they’re going thank you. But this was all favours. Some people worked for nothing. Mainly me.

And with that the Moderator called an end and the Expendables left the stage. On the way out, I hovered in the foyer, just in case. Jason Statham was ushered away and Dolph Lungdren wasted no time either. But Sly was having transport organised for him, he was heading off to another press engagement and so he hung around for a couple of minutes, signing autographs, answering questions, posing for photos. I managed to get his attention. “It’s a great film, well done.” And I offered my hand. “Oh that’s very nice, thank you.” And he shook my hand. And, despite being somewhat shocked that my 5 feet 8 inch frame was slightly taller than Sly’s, I nonetheless felt a transference of testosterone that made me want to get behind the biggest, jeep-mounted weapon I could find and turn faceless bad guys into red mist.

In the end though, I got on the tube and went home.

I'll get my review of The Expendables up as soon as I can. It opens today and it's ludicrous but good fun.