Dolph Lundgren Tells All, from Battling Cancer to Fighting Rocky (Exclusive)

Dolph Lundgren is opening up about everything from his battle with cancer to his battle with Rocky in his new memoir “Fights Worth Fighting: Finding Strength in Struggle."

“Extra’s” Mona Kosar Abdi spoke with the 68-year-old Swedish legend about his rocky journey to Hollywood and his views on life after his cancer diagnosis.

In 2015, Lundgren was diagnosed with kidney cancer. A second opinion revealed that he had treatable lung cancer.

At one point, Dolph was told he only had years to live after being diagnosed.

He noted, “You’re facing your own mortality, so it’s daunting. Took a lot of strength and discipline to kind of navigate my way through it.”

Once he found out that he’d be able to beat the cancer, Dolph did battle with survivor’s guilt.

He explained, “I was told by my therapist that, you know, if you live in an insecure environment… if you have cancer, once you’re close to your mortality, your body reacts a certain way and you get PTSD syndrome so can be depression, it could be suicidal thoughts.”

Lundgren did deal with suicidal thoughts, saying, “I took me about six to nine months to kind of get myself out of that mindset.”

Dolph also recalled his rough childhood with an abusive father.

He shared, “My dad was this good-looking, tall military office. He was abusive towards me, my mom. He beat my mom.”

His traumatic childhood had an impact on his desire to become physicallu strong, an attribute that would help him nab indestructible characters later in life. 

He explained, “As soon as I got into my teens, I wanted to be strong. I started lifting weights. I was training, judo, and ice hockey and karate and lifting weights and slowly got my mind together and decided I wanted to be a champion in martial arts.” 

Lundgren has appeared in over 75 films that have banked billions at the box office, but it’s his role in “Rocky IV” that changed his life!

Dolph and his famous co-star Sylvester Stallone became close friends while making the movie.

Along with calling Sylvester a mentor and an older brother, Lundgren added he is “one of the people I really look up to the most.”

Dolph recalled filming a fight scene with Stallone that didn’t go as planned. He said, “One of those punches rocked Sly so hard, it sent him to the ICU for four days. He got, like, a bruised heart muscle, and it was swollen and they had to fly him down low-altitude so his heart wouldn’t swell up too much.”

According to Lundgren, Stallone is “not that mad about it.”