“I was very sickly as a kid and had a lot of allergies, so martial arts gave me the chance to feel strong.”

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

Having bodyguards is just part of being famous, I think.

Stallone is a pretty tough director. You don’t mess with him.

I got good grades in school, but I’m not sure if I’m smart or if it just means I can study. I’ve never taken one of those IQ tests, and I don’t want to. It’s so pointless. As long as you enjoy life and have fun and you’re healthy and happy, that’s what matters.

I suppose I will try to enjoy my life now while I have it. Who knows what’s going to happen in the future?

When you are acting in a film, you have no idea what scene the editor is going to choose. For instance, after you have directed, you feel more comfortable delivering a performance. Because you know the real performance is put together in the editing room.

When I was a teenager, my dad used to put a lot of pressure on me to be successful, and I’d really beat myself up about things like losing martial arts competitions.

I discovered martial arts, first judo and then karate, and I became quite good at it, because I had something to prove. And more than anything, I needed to feel safe.

It was fun to talk too much as Jebediah Woodley, to keep running your mouth whether the other characters want to hear it or not. That’s part of what made this guy fun.

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.

Because he’s a character who’s looking for his own identity, [He-Man is] an interesting role for an actor.

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.

I like the old school heavy metal bands like AC/DC and Aeromith. I like that type of music. As the director, I tried to influence the type of music the bands in the movie would play.

As a hero, you have to play it straight. The audience is going to live through you, so you have to be more neutral. They will be projecting their thoughts and their actions onto the main character.

I like Stallone, because he writes. He sits down with a blank page and comes up with another Rambo movie. That isn’t very easy for anybody. He’s made it successful on top of that.

I mean there’s still also an element of the audience looking for role models. In my day, when I started, if you were an action hero, you were a little bit of a role model like the person.