Sylvester Stallone On The Set Of The Expendables

Being on the set of The Expendables was an exciting, if not completely tiring, experience. Being able to talk to the man who wrote and is directing and starring in it would have been cool, but since it is Sylvester Stallone it is instead f*cking awesome. Sly is very excited about his new baby, and we were more than happy to be there to witness it's birthing. On the set, we asked him a bevy of questions, and he obliged us in answering all he could. Here is the man, the myth, and the legend, talking about The Expendables, direct from the set.

Q: How did you get such a terrific cast together?

Sylvester Stallone: You try to write parts that interest them and appeal to their sense of competition.  You just have to get their interest, that's all.

Q: Did you have people in mind when you were writing it?

Sly:  Yeah, but they constantly change.  One time I wanted to go with Forest Whitaker mixed in and Ben Kingsley, but after a while the parts change and certain characters that Eddie would think of like Mickey Rourke and Terry Crews, they just started to develop.  That's what happens.  We did about a hundred drafts.  It really just evolved. There's much more CIA now, much more stealth. 

Q: How did you come up with the idea for this film, and what kind of film do you want to make?

Sly:  I just felt that if you are going to do a story about a mercenary, which is always a fascinating character, you try to put them in a situation  where he can find certain redemption. And usually it's going to a third world country where he sees people that are impoverished, people that can't defend themselves.  He finds his own soul.  And just take a little bit of this, a little bit of that. So many great stories in the past, borrowing this and that and something new.

Q: Did some of it come from the story of Rambo 4, team of mercenaries there, a lighter version of that in the way?

Sly:  Yeah, I did think about that, but that was all about Christianity.  But the idea of working with a group - the thing is, it started out as a dark comedy.  It started out as a satire.  I said, "You know what, let me make it really hard R" then I go back. So it constantly was being brutally changed.  It wasn't until literally a week before filming that I said, "let's make this kind of movie."

Q: What is this kind of movie?

Sly:  It's a film that has poignancy, but it's not preachy.  It's dark comedy.  It's also taking the stereotypes that people think we are, like Jason, you know tough guys, and showing he has problems with women.  'Cause I can't even relate to human beings anymore.  It was all these things that the audience can say, "I sort of identify with."  So they are very, very tough in their world and extremely weak in the real one.

Q: Are there comedy elements in this?

Sly:  Oh yeah, and that's the hard part.  Because a lot of these fellows are terrified of comedy.  I mean you talk about hard, sometimes it takes four or five hours to get a performance, and once they go with it, they love it but it's extremely intimidating.  I know it was for me.  Really, if you're to make a fool out of yourself, we will make fools out of ourselves. We don't do it intentionally.  But a lot of action guys are very guarded about their image.  And once they let it down, they go.  So what we're doing is constantly ad-libbing.  And a guy's just about ready to jump from an airplane and he says 'I hate heights' or 'your cologne stinks.'  Just odd things at the improper times.

Q: On the action side of things, how difficult is it to come up with that stuff, make it fresh?

Sly:  The thing is, the Somalian pirates, can you imagine, here we are, and it's almost the year 2010 and we have an outbreak of piracy.  I thought, "nothing changes" this is perfect.  I think if you can find something in an action film that is 50% truth -like in Rambo, in Burma - you're home free.  Because you always say, "This is not just about Sylvester trying to write a story." This actually has a poignancy and relevancy.  What we say here, what we do here is actually happening.  Like if there's ever a Rambo, it has to have some storyline that's in the news or has been in the news recently, otherwise, it's fake action.  There's so much out there you don't have to make this up. 

Q: How is the shooting going here and in Brazil?

Sly:  Very, very, very hard.  This is the hardest film I've ever worked on.  I know everyone says that.  This is unbelievably difficult.  It's just tough because it's so much action and then again there's long scenes that deal with abandonment, mother-father-daughter issues that take hours to film. So you're constantly switching gears, and the Brazilian government keeps changing the rules. I mean it is unbelievably difficult.  And you also have five or six action men. They all have to be served; they all need their equal time.  And that's very, very consuming.  It's one of those things: "Ill try about 100 once and never do it again."

Q: When you've got a cast like this, where each one of the guys could conceivably headline their own action movie, and you've got an audience who has an expectation that these are undefeatable people, what are the challenges associated with creating a sense of danger and suspense?

Sly:  Actually, it's just the opposite.  What I'm trying to do is show you that, like a good fighter,  in the ring is where they are most comfortable.  Outside the ring, they're actually floundering around.  They cannot master their own life.  So what I try to do with these men who look invulnerable is that every one of them has a view to play.  I don't care how much muscle you have, you can still have that flaw, that human touch. That thing that makes us all want to be like. The whole thing about Rocky -it wasn't about him, and it wasn't about boxing, it was about Adrian.  It wasn't about him, is was about her, you know him finding love, him making someone's life better, and before you know it the audience identifies with it. Same thing.  We got some bad-asses! Trust me.  The extras... (We laugh) you think I'm joking?  We got extras in this movie that could conquer countries.  I went to Brazil with the baddest, toughest mercenary group, you know those MMA fighters?  It's staggering.  Every one of them would take all of us and snap us like spaghetti, and they're the extras.  Yet, this is a romantic film, believe it or not.  Because it's about this one woman in Latin America that represents this kind of innocence, and this passion, and this willingness to die for a cause.  And then you have Jason, betrayal, and how he recuperates from that.  So you need that.  This isn't about muscles and bullets. Let me think.

Q: But it also looks at action heroes and the iconography of action heroes?

Sly:  Yea, it does.  Action heroes have gone through this metamorphosis.  There was one where there -I guess after World War II - there was a sense of "we now have to find the new kind of man, the John Wayne" this kind of character, the Lee Marvin, the post war kind of guy-strong, silent, having been somewhat brutalized by the situation.  Then you went to Dirty Harry, which became more of an urban situation, not so much having gone through some kind of turmoil and the government that is war.  Then my generation came along, which are kind of the action guys, but they are not really affiliated with anything, maybe Vietnam, so they all have a complex.  They're America's outcasts.  Then you have the new action hero, which is subject to technology and CGI.  Now the pendulum has swung around, where you are rediscovering the very physical alpha male.  But all the baggage that comes along with trying to deal in a PC world.  Lets say we just dug up the Wild Bunch. Gave them one more shot.  These guys don't fit in this kind of world; they are the Expendables, that is why they are called that.

Q: How was it working with Jet Li and Jason Statham?

Sly:  At first it was like "Oh God," 'cause we don't get a chance to rehearse, and they all have a specific style.  But Jason, one of the reasons he wanted to do this was because he was going to go in a different direction. He was going to show the side of him that has been very guarded, the very vulnerable side. Jet is still a mystery to me.  But he's coming out great.  I mean, Jet signed up six months ago, and I didn't meet him until the day he walked on the set, not even a phone call, but it all clicked.  Everything he's in, every moment he adapts to it and is charming And he's very funny in this, but minimal, he doesn't have to overdo it.