Veteran action hero Sylvester Stallone has revealed he sustained one of the worst injuries of his career filming the new installment of The Expendables. "I usually grade the quality of a film by the intensity of the injury," said the star.
"When I do The Expendables I break my neck, my spine, and dislocate shoulders. I fell on my back and had to put some metal in there, so if I'm squeaky, then deal with it, it's not my shoe, it's my back".The 68-year-old actor explained the extent of his injuries at a press conference in London promoting the third film in the action series with fellow cast members Antonio Banderas, Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes, and Kellan Lutz. His co-stars chipped in with their on-set mishaps, saying getting hurt was "inevitable". Antonio admitted he kept an incident to himself which happened on the first day of filming. "I got injured in the first tape that I did on the movie, running up to a helicopter. I carried on through the film, but I didn’t say that to anybody because I didn’t want them to think I’m getting older," the 53-year-old said.
Jason Statham also jokingly revealed a minor accident: "I snapped a shoe lace, it was very depressing".Sylvester, however, told a different story – about how his co-star had a hair-raising experience while shooting an action scene. "Ha, Jason actually saw death at the bottom of the black sea," he explained. He's very modest about it. He drove a truck 60ft down the black mud, because I cut the break line".He continued joking: "We're all sitting around, the expendables in a group going, 'I wouldn't jump in after him, would you save him? Heck no I wouldn't'. I like the guy, but not that much."
The film also features acting heavyweights Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson as well as younger talents like Kellan and newcomer Ronda Rousey. Sylvester described the mix of ages as being like "a family situation". "We needed to upgrade and re-tool," he says of the mix "And I thought [it] would be interesting. Also the age factor is that the youth must be served, so we brought in the new generation".The Expendables 3 hits cinemas in the UK on 14 August.