{"id":3414042,"date":"2018-11-21T13:16:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T18:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/?p=3414042"},"modified":"2023-03-29T08:57:02","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T12:57:02","slug":"florian-munteanu-creed-2-ivan-drago-son-viktor-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/2018\/11\/21\/florian-munteanu-creed-2-ivan-drago-son-viktor-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Creed II’s Florian Munteanu Reveals Viktor Drago’s Not Your ‘Typical Villain’: Expect ‘Surprises’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florian Munteanu is making his debut in ‘Creed II’ as Ivan Drago’s son, Viktor, and HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with the star about the game-changing role. Don’t hate on Viktor just yet!<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Romanian boxer Florian “Big Nasty” Munteanu<\/strong>, 28, is making his feature film debut in Creed II<\/em><\/a>, in theaters everywhere Nov. 21. Florian plays Ivan Drago’s son, Viktor, in the highly-anticipated follow-up to the 2015 film Creed<\/em>. Viktor’s father, played by Dolph Lundgren<\/strong>, 61, is the character who killed Apollo Creed, Adonis’s father, in Rocky IV<\/em>. Adonis (Michael B. Jordan<\/strong>) and Viktor will be facing off in the ring in Creed II<\/em>. Even though he is the son of an epic Rocky<\/em> villain, Viktor is more than just his father’s son, and what happens in Creed II<\/em> will surprise you.<\/p>\n

“You will like me on screen, trust me,” Florian told HollywoodLife<\/strong> EXCLUSIVELY at the movie’s New York City premiere on Nov. 14. “It’s a tease that I’m not a typical villain. I’m playing the role with a lot of heart and emotions. I’m pretty sure you’re going to feel for the Drago side, too. I feel like there’s a lot of surprises, so prepare yourself. You won’t even hate my father, trust me.”<\/p>\n

Florian talks a big game! The Rocky<\/em> franchise is beloved by so many, and Florian revealed what Sylvester Stallone<\/strong><\/a>, 72, told him upon getting the role. “Stallone is the one who discovered me,” Florian continued. “He has a talent for finding new talent. He found Dolph back in the day and Carl Weathers<\/strong>, so I have to give him credit. But, he told me, ‘Man, I found you, but the pressure is now on you. Pay me back, right. I’m giving you a lot of credits before, now you have to pay me back.’ So, I knew that in order to do that, I had to give at least a 1000 percent to make everyone happy and, of course, the audience because they’re expecting a lot from this role because it’s the son of an iconic role. I’m really confident that everyone will be happy.”<\/p>\n

Florian is no stranger to training hard in the gym. However, he admitted that he got into the “best shape” of his life for the Creed<\/em> sequel. “I basically trained the way I always train, but I added a few more hours per day in order to be super ripped and super shredded,” Florida told HollywoodLife<\/strong>. “I think I was in the best shape of my life for this movie, definitely. I lost like 20-25 pounds, so my walking around weight is like 254 right now. For the movie I was like 220… Now I’m eating pizza and cheesesteaks and all that sh*t. For the movie I was on a strict diet \u2014 chicken, rice, a few vegetables, that’s it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florian Munteanu is making his debut in ‘Creed II’ as Ivan Drago’s son, Viktor, and HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with the star about the game-changing role. Don’t hate on Viktor just yet!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109685740,"featured_media":3414129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exclude_post_from_river":false,"_cr_original_post":"","_cr_replace_post_id":"","_cr_replacing_post_id":"","mt_seo_title":"Florian Munteanu On 'Creed 2': Talks Playing Ivan Drago's Son Viktor","mt_seo_description":"Florian Munteanu talked to HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY about playing Ivan Drago's son, Viktor, in 'Creed 2!'","_pmc_canonical_override":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2018-11-21T18:16:21Z","apple_news_api_id":"35adbefc-225b-4ac3-9225-8e297744b9d0","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2018-11-21T18:16:22Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ANa2-_CJbSsOSJY4pd0S50A","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":["https:\/\/news-api.apple.com\/sections\/0eeb274c-9169-304a-8cfa-4dce69866971"],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[190,378004978],"tags":[136863],"_post-options":[],"coauthors":[326312705],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/creed-2-florian-ftr.jpg?fit=620%2C349","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc8i1J-ek9c","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414042"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109685740"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3414042"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4979274,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414042\/revisions\/4979274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3414129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3414042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3414042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3414042"},{"taxonomy":"_post-options","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post-options?post=3414042"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3414042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}