Lundgren, the pumped up blonde-haired giant best known for his portrayals of KGB henchmen, Spetsnaz operatives and Rocky Balboa's intimidating Soviet opponent Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, told Swedish men's magazine Café that he admires Russian President Vladimir Putin, and explained why.
"I think Putin's good as Russian president. It's good that he looks after his country, because if there was some weakling in his place, who knows how things would end up," the actor said.
Russia, Lundgren recalled, "has at least 5,000 nuclear warheads, and clearly, someone needs to keep some damn order over there, and [Putin] does it quite well."
The US, he said, always need to have someone to portray as a "bad guy," and now the Russians are returning to this role. "In the past, it's been the Iranians, ISIS [Daesh], or East Germans, but now the Russians are making a comeback."
Summing up his thoughts about the Russian leader, Lundgren quipped that "Yes, hell I think he's pretty cool."
59-year-old Dolph Lundgren famously portrayed Soviet bad guys in James Bond: A View to a Kill, Rocky IV, and Red Scorpion, and other action titles including the Universal Soldier franchise and Showdown in Little Tokyo. He returned to the big screen with the Expendables series.
This spring, he filmed a humorous promotional film for Belarusian online multiplayer wargame World of Tanks. He is now working with Sylvester Stallone on Creed II, the revenge story of the son of Apollo Creed, the American boxer killed by Lundgren's Drago in Rocky IV.
