Sylvester Stallone Wanted to Do His ‘Rocky’ Fight Scenes With Jason Momoa in ‘Bullet to the Head’
Sylvester Stallone once returned to the action genre in this 2012 thriller with Jason Momoa. But Momoa shared there were times the star wanted to relive his Rocky glory days while on set.
Sylvester Stallone tried to pay homage to ‘Rocky’ with Jason Momoa in ‘Bullet to the Head’
Bullet to the Head marked the first time Momoa teamed up with Stallone, and saw Stallone going back to his action star roots. Stallone played a hitman in the feature going up against Momoa’s ruthless ax-wielding mercenary. For Momoa, working alongside Stallone was one of the most exciting and attractive parts of the feature.
“It’s Stallone, he’s a self-made man… he’s Rocky and Rambo. How could I not do this? And at the very end, it’s an ax fight with Rocky! I think I can do this, and I’ll be immortalized by my son for the rest of my life,” Momoa said on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight.
With this being an action movie, a clash between Momoa’s and Stallone’s characters were only a matter of time. But while rehearsing their fight scenes, Momoa shared that Stallone was interesting in doing a few callbacks to his Rocky franchise.
“Obviously I’m the one that’s gonna be waving the axe a lot more and taking the attacks, but there are some great spots where he wanted to do this homage to Rocky and he’s like, ‘Hey, got this idea, you know. I’ll lock you up and I’ll throw a couple in the ribs.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that’d be great! Man, it’ll be awesome,’” Momoa once told Collider.
Jason Momoa didn’t want to hit Sylvester Stallone because he had ‘slabs of meat for fists’
Although Momoa obliged Stallone’s requests, the Game of Thrones star discovered that Stallone could still pack a punch even in his older years. Stallone would tell Momoa stories about his past bouts in the Rocky franchise. Afterwards, Momoa and his co-star would try to use those fights as a foundation for their own Bullet to the Head battle.
“And he’s telling stories about him and Dolph and there are production stills of him just sinking it into his ribs and I’m like, ‘Well, I can put a pad in here.’ And he’s like, ‘No, no. I’ll pull the punch. I’ll pull.’ I’m like, ‘Alright.’ OK. I’ve got this f***er on tape, too. He comes in and he lights me up three times. It’s like BOOM, two, three. And it’s just that pace. One. Two. Three,” Momoa recalled.
But the more the rough-housing continued, the more Momoa enjoyed himself with the action hero.
“He rocks me and then he switches to his right hand. And then he he nails me in the right. I was like, ‘Awww.’ It was great. He’s having fun. I’m having fun. S***. The other day was like, ‘I’m fighting with Rocky.’ It’s the coolest thing in the world,” he said.
But Momoa was still careful not to legitimately bruise the actor while filming.
“At the end of Bullet to the Head I had to swing this wooden axe at top speed right at Stallone and you don’t really want to clip him. He’s got these slabs of meat for fists,” Momoa once told Men’s Health (via Digital Spy).
Sylvester Stallone once joked that the ax-fight was his least favorite part of ‘Bullet to the Head’
Although Momoa enjoyed himself immensely during his fight with Stallone, Stallone joked that he didn’t reciprocate the Aquaman star’s feelings. In an interview with CBS News, the actor quipped he was enjoying filming Bullet to the Head for the most part.
“Until the axe fight,” Stallone said. “And I went, ‘Damn, what was I thinking?’ That hurt a little bit.”
