Dolph Lundgren Talks Working With Kelsey Grammer in New Action Thriller ‘Wanted Man’ (Exclusive)

Dolph Lundgren has a brand new action movie out this week, Wanted Man, which also co-stars his Expendables 3 castmate Kelsey Grammer. In the film, Lundgren plays Detective Johansen, an aging cop “whose outdated policing methods have given the department a recent public relations problem. To save his job, he is sent to Mexico to extradite a female witness (Christina Villa) to the murders of two DEA agents. Once there, he finds not only his old opinions challenged, but that bad hombres on both sides of the border are now gunning for him and his witness.”

PopCulture.com had a chance to chat with Lundgren — who also co-wrote and directed Wanted Man — to talk about the new film, including what it was like to work with Grammer again. “He’s easy,” Ludgren said of directing Grammer. “I knew him socially, and we worked on Expendables together. But, I didn’t really act with him. I just met him.” He then added,” Somebody suggested him out of nowhere, really. First, I wasn’t sure, but then I thought… ‘Well, I knew him, and he was a great guy.’ We get along very well.” Lundgren continued, “I also knew that maybe his light delivery, and all that, would be helpful, so I decided to go that way, and I thought… I think it works.”

Speaking about how Wanted Man initially came together, Lundgren recalled, “I got the idea about 15 years ago from a movie called The Gauntlet, with Clint Eastwood, where he had an interstate transfer of a prisoner. Then, I played around with that idea a little bit. Then, about three, four years ago, I realized immigration was a big topic.” He added, “The script came up in some conversation, and I just started tweaking it with this writer.”

Lundgren also dished on crafting his character, Johansen, saying, “I decided maybe I should make the main character somebody who’s got his preconceived notions about immigration and immigrants because of his job and because of his friends and all of that. Then, to give him a little bit of a corner to turn later in the story. From there, we just got the script on and moved on from there.”

It turns out that, Lundgren wasn’t always certain he would even play the lead role in the film, telling telling he “did in the beginning,” but later “started thinking, ‘Well, maybe I could play somebody else.’” He added, “Eventually it came down to getting the film financed and keeping it simple and not to bring anything into it that could make it more difficult. Because, you know, on a small level, on an indie movie like this, there’s no room for error.”

Lungren then quipped, “I know that I’m reliable as an actor. I show up on time and I can direct myself. I don’t have to do too many takes and so forth. So, I kept it simple and decided to cast all the other roles anyway.” 

Wanted Man is now playing in select theaters, on-demand, and digitally, from Quiver Distribution.