‘My hair extensions caught fire in a shootout!’ Dolph Lundgren on playing He-Man in Masters of the Universe

‘The studio wanted me to wear less. They wanted to see my muscles. But we were shooting outdoors in winter – and I had to put Vaseline on to keep my body heat in’

Cannon Films had the rights to Masters of the Universe and thought: “Let’s get this new guy. He’s blond, has good pecs … He can wield the sword.” I was convinced to do it but only very reluctantly – I didn’t want to play a toy. There was lots of excitement but also lots of worry. I’d been Soviet bad guy Ivan Drago in Rocky IV and now I was going to be this American hero. I was nervous and afraid people weren’t going to like it.

It was a challenging role. If you play a Soviet fighter, you can watch them on TV but who do you study to play He-Man? The cartoon? I could find some common ground though. I was extremely innocent at that time, vulnerable and kind of boyish. It was daunting trying to access that because I hadn’t done it on camera before. I had conversations with Gary Goddard, the director, but he was also preoccupied with effects and budget. I felt on my own and a bit lost. I was also concerned about my accent – would I sound too Swedish? I did a lot of ADR [Automated Dialogue Replacement], not just because of my accent but also because we had sound issues due to loud generators on set.

I had some say in my costume. The studio wanted me to wear less. I think they thought: “The more we see his muscles, the better.” I wanted the armour to accentuate my body. I’d learned from Sylvester Stallone about what looks good on film. But I basically had nothing on. We shot outdoors in winter and I remember being extremely cold. I had to put Vaseline on to keep my body heat. I did most of my stunts myself. There were lots of incidents on set – during the sporting goods store shootout my hair extensions caught fire!

Frank Langella was very focused as Skeletor. I looked up to him and he gave me pointers. The thick latex on his face took hours to apply. I don’t know how he managed to emote through it. I’m very happy to have been the first guy to play this character in live-action. The compassion of He-Man combined with the brute force of a warrior – I am that. It’s part of me.

Everybody knew these toys and the cartoon. It was huge. When I met Gary Goddard, he said he wanted to make an ET-like story: the Masters of the Universe characters come to Earth and these kids have to save them. I was thrilled.

It felt like it was going to be the biggest movie of all time, but very quickly it became clear they were trying to cut corners. Cannon Films had a very tight budget and shooting schedule. Gary had never directed a movie – his enthusiasm was huge but he didn’t have much experience. We fell behind very quickly. At one point I didn’t even know if we were going to finish it at all.

Billy Barty – who played Gwildor – was hilarious and drunk most of the time. He was an old-school actor and a great storyteller. He’d always have a little cup of something and you could smell the alcohol.