I was this Swedish kid who came over here to study engineering, but I got into movies, and suddenly I'm in this 'Rocky' picture with Sylvester Stallone. And then the movie comes out, and it's a big hit, and I'm famous. Like, world famous. I wasn't thinking of ruling Hollywood; I was thinking of just trying to make it to the next day, trying to figure out what the hell happened.

When you're directing you're kind of interested in the movie and the story and the characters. I just sort of prefer the really tough fighting and some of the other street fighting type moves. You know, where it's not just show. It's not dressing it up for the cameras too much. It's pretty down and dirty, the way it should be. That's something I like to do. I do that.

In my career, whether it's a big or a small movie, when I've worked on something for a long time, like [Ivan] Drago in Rocky IV, they start to take on a life of their own.

There are a lot of great athletes who stop working out, and they get out of shape like everybody else in their 30s and 40s.

It takes nine months for a baby to develop, it takes nine months to develop a character.

My sensei was a British karate champion named Brian Fitkin. He was my mentor and because I had a hard relationship with my dad, he became a father figure to me.

I'm not doing any crazy stuff any more. Like I used to do high falls; I used to jump from the motorcycle to the truck myself. That's unheard of today. Now nobody would ever do that. In those days it was stupid, man. I just did it because that's what it was, but that I don't do anymore.