Ivan Drago himself is now engaged! Dolph Lundgren, the actor behind the iconic Rocky IV character, recently popped the question to girlfriend Emma Krokdal. The couple became engaged while in Sweden earlier in June. While specifics of the proposal have not surfaced, Lundgren spilled the news on Instagram back on June 16.
In the reveal, the 62-year-old action star stands next to Krokdal in front of a scenic city overlook on a balcony. There is a romantic dinner scene set up, seemingly for a celebration. With Lundgren’s arm around her, Krokdal shows off some new bling, an engagement ring. In his caption, the Creed 2 actor noted that “Something very special happened here in Sweden.” He also added the letter D, a heart emoji and the letter E, representing their first initials.
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More than 227,000 people have liked the image, with many well-wishes in the comments. His Rocky IV and Creed II co-star Sylvester Stallone has the top comment on the post. He wrote, “Congratulations my good friend. You’re the best. Sly.”
The Creed II role is one of many that Lundgren has landed as of late. He’s starred in The Expendables 3, Aquaman, Kindergarten Cop 2 and the upcoming Minions: The Rise of Gru, among many others, in recent years. However, his reprisal of the Ivan Drago character seemed to strike the strongest chord with audiences. In an interview about the film for /Film, Lundgren opened up about the “huge difference” it was to tackle the role again with an additional 30 years of experience under his belt.
“To make a good film, you need a good script and a good director. We had a great script and a great director. We had a really fantastic script that I read in January this year. It sort of blew away any doubt that I had that they would make him a one-dimensional Russian bad guy,” he said, thanking director Steven Caple Jr. for “protecting” the Drago character. He also described the scene as “surreal,” but he felt a “warm and a nice feeling” on-set as he reprised the character.
He added, “On some levels, it was a challenge because I wanted to do something really good and powerful. I’ve lived a full life, 30 years of living and family and divorce and too much drinking and career problems and injuries and doubts. A lot of things have happened to me since 1985 that I can draw on to play this guy who obviously has a lot of issues that he’s dealing with.”
