One of the oddest things that I actually also love about the Rocky movies is that in real life Dolph Lundgren seems like he’s a really nice person. I of course adore Sylvester Stallone, who seems like one of the kindest but also fiercest persons to ever exist. He’s just overall such a cool person. (Okay, I’ve been a little obsessed with the Rocky movies since I was a teen, and happily so. Both the Rocky and Karate Kid movies. They’re underdog stories, and they’re brilliant. As I said before, what’s not to love?) Anyway, I’m one of those people who, when I see a movie villain in real life, I’m like “Oh, he’s not a villain, he only plays one on TV! =)” However, not the case with Drago and a few others.
True Story: I used to be afraid of Freddy Krueger when I was a kid (elementary school years), you know, the villain character from Nightmare on Elm Street. My sister, who’s older than me and was in middle school at the time would watch the Freddy movies like it was nothing, no big deal. She liked horror movies. Me on the other hand, when I watched the Freddy movies, I was actually afraid, thinking that Freddy might seriously be real. I just couldn’t grasp why people would make horror movies, but I later discovered it was for entertainment purposes only. Anyway, I then saw Robert Englund one day on TV, the actor who plays Freddy, and my fear just went away. I simply wasn’t afraid anymore. However, since I watched the Rocky movies when I was older (in my teen and young adult years), after researching about Dolph Lundgren and finding out that he’s actually a cool, nice guy, I could still appreciate the role that he plays in Rocky as the main villain. It’s really quite fascinating how the mind works, that we can distance ourselves from reality when watching or reading fiction stories. Even to this day, after having seen the first Rocky movie several times, I still feel that Drago is in fact a villain onscreen, and I can feel all the emotions connected to his character. Also, I love that they’ve made additional movies, spinning off from the original Rocky movies. Yay! The series continues, Rocky fans! [Image Credits: Artwork is a poster from PopArt-Posters.com.]
