Living The Red Life - Icon. Fighter. Founder: Dolph Lundgren’s Story

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

Dolph Lundgren is a renowned Swedish actor, director, producer, and now entrepreneur. He is celebrated for his iconic role as Ivan Drago in "Rocky IV" and has become synonymous with blockbuster action films like "The Expendables," "Aquaman," and "Creed." With a rare mix of intellectual rigor in chemical engineering and mastery in martial arts, Dolph’s path from academia to Hollywood is as remarkable as his screen presence. A true Hollywood heavyweight. A living legend.In this riveting episode, Dolph Lundgren opens up about both his legendary film career and his bold leap into entrepreneurship. Known worldwide for his role as Ivan Drago, he shares the remarkable journey from Sweden to global stardom and, ultimately, to founding Hard Cut Vodka. We dive into the lessons Dolph has learned while transitioning into the business world, revealing the strategies that have fueled his success both on-screen and in the entrepreneurial arena.This conversation unpacks Dolph’s evolution from the structured discipline of chemical engineering to the unpredictable world of Hollywood and business. He reflects on the risks of leaving a full scholarship at MIT to pursue acting, the highs and lows of life in film, and the resilience it takes to keep pushing forward. With themes of perseverance, passion, and reinvention, this episode offers a powerful look into Dolph’s life philosophy — and how it drives his entrepreneurial vision today.Key Takeaways:Dolph Lundgren's transition from engineering to acting highlights the courage needed to pursue one's true passion over a conventional, safe path.The journey to success is not linear; facing and overcoming challenges define growth and achievement in both film and business.Perseverance and adaptability are crucial traits, whether dealing with the high stakes of Hollywood or the intricacies of entrepreneurship.Dolph views life as an adventure, advocating for believing in oneself and constantly pushing forward through life's hurdles.Building a business, like filmmaking, requires a combination of creativity, motivation, and resilience amid regulatory and operational challenges.Notable Quotes:"It's a struggle. Every day is a struggle. You know, you have to get up in the morning and you have to face, you know, eight bad moments and then hopefully, you know, 10 great moments.""Life is short, and you have to get the most out of it... I wanted to follow my passion.""When the going gets really rough and you have no help, and it's up to yourself, and you think you're not going to make it, that's when you have to push through.""I think the perseverance, something I brought along, I think also working with people and trying to motivate people, being creative as well.""That's the gift I had—to be able to make people feel better or try to give them something and... enlighten their lives."Connect with Dolph Lundgren:InstagramIMDBHardCutVodkaConnect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

You probably noticed who I'm sat next to right now. Someone that I've looked up to for many years. Mr. Dolph Lundgren, welcome. Thanks, man. Dolph Lundgren is a legendary action star, best known for his iconic role as Ivan Drago. I must break you. In a decades-long career in Hollywood.

Today, he's transitioned from the big screen to the business world as the founder of hard-cut vodka, bringing his trademark intensity and precision to crafting a bold, smooth American-made spirit. You know, even more recently, you've had the you know aquaman and creed and expendables i think some people from the outside they think it's just oh that person's just successful what's the truth well the truth is that it's a struggle it's always when the going gets really rough and you have no help and it's up to yourself and you

think you're not going to make it that's when you have to push through because that's what gives you the success i mean the people i can push through that are successful the ones you don't they're never successful you had this extensive Hollywood career now you're getting into you know more my rules the entrepreneurship you aren't I managed staff and people and vendors how's how's that like what have you taken from the successes and applying it into your entrepreneurial ventures oh entrepreneurship well my name's rudy more host of living the red life podcast and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week if you're ready to start living the red life ditch the blue pill take the red pill join me in wonderland and change your life hello

and welcome back to another episode you probably notice who i'm sat next to right now a very very famous actor someone that i've looked up to for many years mr dulf lungram welcome to uh the studio and thanks for being here thanks man so uh you know i grew up watching rocky my mom uh you know was a pro athlete and she would listen to the soundtracks all day and then the the training scenes that you're part of. So I'm very excited to be here with you and, you know, you've become an iconic action sort of hero, right? And obviously a bad guy in some of the movies. But your story is a story that I think everyone can resonate. You know, like me, you came from Europe. He had this dream of coming to America. That's where the action was. So do you mind kind of summarizing that for people

listening? Yeah, I grew up in Sweden. My mom and dad were academics. I was a kid, sick as a little kid, and my dad was kind of abusive toward me and my mom, so I ended up trying to live up to something and become strong and, you know, do martial arts and sports and then studied chemical engineering to kind of please him to some degree. But, you know, somewhere along my, in my road, I started I discovered show business and I realized I wanted to be a creative person and I wanted to I wanted to be emotional and I wanted to express myself and that's why I ended up doing. Did you ever, you know, obviously you liked America, you watched the movie, it's kind of like I got into basketball and that's what brought me to America. Did you ever, do you ever, were you

ever watching a movie or something and going one day that'll be me? I watched Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson when I was a kid, but I didn't really think I was going to be an actor. I don't know. I just, I was attracted to the American society to, to the opportunities and the people seem to have fun, to, to work hard, to believe in yourself. It was, it was about a positive experience to me in both movies and music. And that's kind of what I want to be part of. I didn't really know I wanted to be an actor until I was 27 years old. Well, and what I love about your story too is you're, you know, working, you're literally your whole life to basically get to MIT. You get the full scholarship, which is the crem d'o crem, right? You kind of

made it. And then right at that moment is when you sort of fall into acting because you're in New York and your whole life is spun around. And I think a lot of people that are afraid to take risk, they would have gone with the full scholarship. And do you ever think back like how different your life could be now if you were just gone on that academic route? Yeah, I would have ended up like my dad, probably frustrated, and I think he was just frustrated with his life. He wanted to do other things, but his parents, you know, wanted him to study, and that's what he did. And he stuck with it, and he became an engineer, which is nothing bad by engineer. And I'm just thinking, you know, for me, I think in my life, I've always seen another opportunity.

Ever since I was a kid, I realized life is short, and you have to get the most out of it. And I, you know, I did sports. I did engineering. I used that to get to America. But when I was here, I realized, oh, there's something more interesting to me, which is show business. And now lately, I've realized there's something more interesting, perhaps was interesting in a show business, which is business to, you know, run a company.

So that's kind of what I'm doing now. And we'll get to that in a minute. But before that, I'm interested. What would you say if someone's listening, you know, the safe route is going to MIT with the scholarship, the very risky route is acting because not many people make it in reality, right? What would you say someone listening that has to pass a risky one and a safe one? What advice would you give to them? Well, you know, it's always good to have some kind of safety in the back of your pocket like you could, you know, I had a degree. I had a master's degree

in chemical engineering, but I knew it wasn't going to make me happy. So I wanted to follow my passion. I think you have to follow your passion. If I would have been very passionate about engineering, I would have done it, but I wasn't. There was something I was more passionate about, which was entertainment and acting. Love that. So let's fast forward a bit. You kind of fall into acting, you get a couple of roles, and then, you know, you land into this role, Rocky, right? I'm Rambo at the same time, and this changes everything. You have one of the most, I still believe, like, the most iconic training scenes and history of movies, you know, you and Stallone, right? It's still, it's

quoted and then remade into modern day movies these days. But you told me a story you were sat. You didn't really know it was going to be that big. So you sat in the premiere watching it and there's this oh wow moment. Like this is it. How did that feel? Yeah, it was, well, the whole experience of shooting a movie even and being on screen with Sly and actually acting with Apollo Creed and people I've seen on the movies and

James Brown was there and that was unreal as well. but I think seeing it on the big screen, that's when I realized that was going to change my life. I think any of those scenes, I think as soon as I came on screen, I realized there was a very powerful character and I could tell in the theater.

You know, it's a communal experience. We're all sitting there and the first time people saw that character, especially in the Vegas scene of Paula Creed when I kill him. I remember I was shocked myself. I felt really bad. Like, have I done?

I'm just like, what's going to happen to me. I was just as blown away as the rest in the theater that, you know, the power of cinema. It's quite amazing. And was there a moment there where you were like all the risk and the time you've doubted yourself, maybe, or other people have doubted you? And I'm sure you got rejected from auditions and told no and things didn't go your way. Did you like, okay, now it's worth it? Yeah. It was worth it, for sure.

It was worth it. I came out of that theater and suddenly people wanted to take pictures of me and all that work that was sly all those months and all the auditions and all the rejections. I remember when I moved to L.A. from New York to train with him and I wanted to borrow money from my agent. I didn't have any money. I said, I said, can you let me 500 bucks, you know, and I'll pay you back, you know, and I did pay him back, but I know he told somebody I'll never see that money again. So I think that, yeah, it was a good feeling to kind of to see the proof that it was going to work out for me.

And it's kind of cool how cinema has such an impact on the world. Like still now you go to signings and fans and how does that feel each year's on? It feels great. Then I can meet fans and sometimes I hear a story about their, you know, their dad who was, who died. But maybe the son remembers that they had that moment watching. one of my movies. And now, you know, when I signed something for him and he comes up to me at the table and it's like a truly emotional moment, like it means a lot to them. And when I was a kid making those movies, I didn't realize that. But now I'm realizing that I think that was

the gift that I had to be able to make people feel better or trying to give them something and kind of enlighten their lives, you know. And the next question, you know, you've had this long career and you know even more recently you've had the you know aquaman and creed and expendables but it's not a straight line to success right you said yourself you had you know laws in the middle and all these things i think some people from the outside they think it's just oh that person's just successful what's the truth well the truth is that it's a struggle every day is a struggle you know you have to get up in the morning and you have to face you know eight best moments and then hopefully, you know, 10 great moments, you know, and you know what it's like.

You know, it's always when the going gets really rough and you have no help and it's up to yourself and you think you're not going to make it. That's when you have to push through because that's what gives you the success. I mean, the people I can push through that are successful. The ones who don't, they're never successful. That's unfortunate, but that's how it works. That's just how nature set it up for us. Yeah. And how was it? You know, more recently, filming Expendables, Creed, Aquaman, where they're cool, like, you know, Aquaman, massive budget, right? It was, like, a cool experience, and Expendable, you got, like,

10 iconic good actors, right? Yeah, Expendables is just a good time, because I know all these guys, Sly and Arnold, and 50 was a new guy now, and you have Randy Couture, and Jason, James Statham, Mill Gibson, all of these icons. It's great to see them all in one little room, It's almost weird, you know, bizarre, but, you know, Aquaman was terrific because big budget picture, you know, you're hanging in wires for, you know, hours at an end and, you know, here's your 5,000 man army. There's nothing there. You're just looking, okay, what's over there?

Well, that's the, you know, big kingdom of so-and-so, and you have to imagine everything is done afterwards. So they actually have two movies. They have the movie they're shooting. Then they have an animated version of the picture that they'll show you. This is what it's going to look like. So then when you go on set, you realize what you're about to face. You know, it's totally, you know, 80% of it is made in the computer. Was it cool to see that finished product too?

Yeah, really cool. Like they had my character do something and then I got to sort of match it over here. But then sometimes they'll adjust, but that means sometimes you've got to do 30 takes. it wasn't your performance just the fact that you didn't move proper the way it's supposed to be so interesting tedious but I mean

I'm not crazy about the Marvel movies for that reason that it's very very tedious it's kind of hard to enjoy the acting they're kind of creating like a masterpiece almost right where they're doing his takes yeah it's a total masterpiece and guys like James Juan who did

Aquaman and he's a master of that but I wouldn't want to direct a picture like die. It's just too tedious for me. Yeah. Good. So last couple of questions. Yeah. You had this extensive Hollywood career. Now you're getting into, you know, more my rules, the entrepreneurship. You aren't managed staff and people and vendors. How's that? Like what have you taken from the successes and applying it into your entrepreneurial ventures? Oh, entrepreneurship. Well, it's very hard. There's a lot of ups and downs. It's very difficult. Shit happens every morning you wake up and you have like this email. What? What?

what's going on? Like, you know, it is kind of like making a movie, but when you're filming a movie, you're, the hardest part is the production, and that only goes for so long. But, you know, entrepreneurship, you're looking at, you know, a year, five years. I think the perseverance, something I brought along, I think also working with people and trying to motivate people, being creative as well. But I do think that it's a, it's different. and it's more difficult in some ways. Also, in our case, it's a liquor brand. We're selling alcohol and selling alcohol is very regulated. So, you know, you're dealing with all of that, a lot of rules, a lot of legal stuff. But to me, it's been a wonderful challenge and something

I really enjoy doing, actually, now. Good. So last question. If people want to learn more about, you know, your more recent projects and this alcohol line, where can they find it? Alcohol line, well, it's hardcut vodka.com, you can check that out. Coming to you soon. Smooth, or like we say, hard cut, smooth finish. Very smooth vodka. About my career, well, I got a couple of new things coming out. I got a documentary about my life at the Newport Beach Film Festival, Touring Film Festival,

submitted to Sundance, at TIF, Toronto Film Festival. There's a book coming out. with Harper Collins next year. I got a couple of big movies coming out. Some of them is secret because they're remakes of other things I've done. I do little small appearances. I'm producing a couple of things with my wife.

One movie set in Hollywood, playing myself. Somebody stole my dogs and I'm upset about it. That's an action comedy kind of, you figure that up. Yeah, that's it and a few other things. So I'm staying active. Busy, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Well, good. Well, I love hearing the story. It's been so fascinating and it's so great to just kind of see how your life unraveled, you know? And just like all of us as entrepreneurs, it's like you didn't know where you'd end up. You just believed in yourself and you kept moving forward. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That life is an adventure. You just got to keep pushing forward and believe in what you got to do and believe in this world and believe in what you can give to it. And I think that's the important part of it. I love that. Dolf, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Guys, take care. That's a right. Bye-bye.