At 66, Sylvester Stallone took a volley of blows in the boxing ring for his Rocky films, endured tough workout regimens to stay in shape as soldier John Rambo, and was battered by explosions in The Expendables.

But his roles are catching up with him and fellow action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, now forced to make frequent trips to doctors to get various body parts “fixed”.

Sly says, “It comes at a price. Arnie must have lifted a million pounds of weights in his life but it comes at a price. There’s only so far you can push the machine, then it’s a case of taking it to the mechanic to get this part fixed, or that part fixed. These days that happens more and more! But I still love the challenge. I get on set and I go, ‘Let me jump off, let me go into the water…’”

He’ll continue to avoid modern hi-tech filming methods to achieve realism in his action scenes, adding, “I don’t know how those guys do that green-screen work – I’ve done a bit and it drives me crazy. I like the heat of an explosion in my face, a hunk of tin flying past my head 30ft from where it should’ve gone! It’s hard to get the emotion without it.”

The body’s not a machine. If only it were that simple. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? Not always.

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