Banderas on ‘Expendables craziness’

Antonio Banderas says Expendables 3 action sequences are pure “craziness”.

The 53-year-old Spanish actor portrays Rapido in the forthcoming kick-butt sequel written by Sylvester Stallone.

And Antonio confesses he was shocked by some of the stunts he had to perform on set.

“You have to be in good shape, basically. And then, you have to have a certain craziness, if you’re going to do some of the action things,” he told Collider.

“I did something that I shouldn’t have done. I’m in my 50s now, and just running almost 50 meters with explosives going on, it was kind of like, ‘Oh, my god! What am I doing here'’ The whole entire building was shaking, and stuff like that. But, you do it. At the same time, I just wanna do it if I have the possibility of laughing a little bit at myself.”

Antonio found his confidence eventually, as he tapped into the techniques he learned while filming the Zorro series and 1995 release Desperado.

“I have a rifle [in Expendables 3], and I use a lot of fighting skills that I learned years ago. I have certain abilities,” he shared.

Antonio stars alongside serious action movie legends in the picture.

And the cast eventually developed an extraordinarily strong bond.

“There was no competition. It’s just weird when you arrive to set and you see the chairs for everybody,” Antonio recalled.

“There was one for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sly Stallone, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes. But the only one that didn’t have weights was mine. Everybody else had weights by their chairs, and just lifting weights the whole entire day. I was like, ‘Oh, man! These guys!’ It’s history, what was there. The truth is that.”

Expendables 3 reaches theatres this summer.