UNIVERSAL SOLDIER - 1992

Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Ally Walker, Ed O'Ross, Jerry Orbach.

DOLPH'S THOUGHTS:
A TriStar film. It was a Carolco production. The director Roland Emmerich, a very nice man, very talented, went on to do pictures like Independence Day and Godzilla. It was the first time since Sly Stallone that I co-starred with another action-star., in this case with Jean-Claude Van Damme.

We had a good time working out for the picture. The fight scenes where a lot of fun because Jean-Claude had a very balletic base style with a lot of flowing kicks, and where as I worked more on power, using kicks and throws, and wrestling moves. We had a lot of fun rehearsing the scenes.

Also, obviously there was a bit of competition physically, we had quite a few scenes with our shirts off. We did a lot of hard bodybuilding and dieting, each trying to look better than the other one. But I think we both came off OK at the end of the day.

There was this special moment at the Cannes Film Festival where Jean-Claude and I decided that on the stairs of the Palace theater (the red carpet entrance to the main exhibition theater where the film was previewed), we should do a Mohammed Ali / Joe Fraizer moment. So I bumped in to him, and he kind of pushed me. We squared off, just like in a boxing ring. Of course the paparazzi from France and Italy went nuts. It worked, the pictures appeared in most papers in the world, and hopefully helped the movie, but it was only for show!