Just because someone seems impossibly badass on the big screen, that doesn't mean they're
so macho in real life.
Here are some tough guy actors who aren't afraid to show their softer side.
In the 21st century, there's no bigger old-school action star than Vin Diesel.
He's such a pre-packaged action hero that his name sounds like it belongs to a character
that Vin Diesel would play in a movie.
So it's kind of surprising to hear from the man's own mouth that while he may look like
a superhero come to life, in his downtime, he's into what could be called "nerd stuff."
Diesel, real name Mark Sinclair, absolutely loves Dungeons & Dragons.
How much?
Well...
"So much so, he wrote the foreword for the book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration
of Dungeons & Dragons."
Next time you're neck-deep in a Diesel flick binge-a-thon, keep a lookout for the action
hero's "Melkor" tattoo in xXx: Return of Xander Cage, that's an homage to his old D&D character
of the same name.
"The most famous character of mine is a character named Melkor."
Where'd he come up with the name, you might ask?
The Silmarillion, more or less the holy book of The Lord of the Rings fandom.
Now that is a deep cut.
Big Kahuna Burger-lovin', snakes on a plane-hatin' Samuel L. Jackson has appeared in so many
movies, and we're talking big ones like Marvel's The Avengers, a couple of Star Wars prequels,
and way, waaay more, that he's become the highest-grossing actor in the States, with
a total haul of more than $5.7 billion.
On screen, Jackson is often known for his intense attitude and menacing stare, but in
real life, he just wants to play golf.
In fact, his film contracts generally include clauses that allow him time off to hit the
links twice a week.
"I have a golf clause.
Yeah, two days a week, I have to play, they have to pay for it.
Most times they just move me onto a golf course.
So, I become an automatic member wherever I am."
And he doesn't just play golf, he goes full throttle, wearing the ugliest, most aggressively
checkered golf clothes, just like your grandpa.
For more than 40 years, Sylvester Stallone has thrilled filmgoers with all kinds of movies.
But his bread and butter is in action movies, where he plays title characters with sturdy
names like Rocky, Rambo, and Cobra.
Stallone's thick, slurry voice may suggest that he's not the brightest of guys, but consider
this: Could a dumb guy have written Rocky, a powerful story of human triumph that was
nominated in the screenwriting category at the 1977 Academy Awards?
"You were nominated for both writing the screenplay and acting that year."
"Two other people Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles have ever been nominated for those
two categories in the same year."
Stallone was notoriously broke and struggling to land good acting work when he was starting
out in the mid-'70s, so he wrote Rocky in, get ready for it, three and a half days.
Thus, a legend was born.
Also, he's a lifelong aficionado of polo.
So there's that.
"Playing polo, hitting the ball, is like trying to play golf during an earthquake."
Tom Hardy has unsurprisingly parlayed his tough guy looks into a career as a thinking
man's action star, choosing to play weirdos, baddies, and anti-heros in bewildering thrill-fests
like Mad Max: Fury Road, The Dark Knight Rises, and Venom.
But take away the muscles that he packs on for those roles, and Hardy is just a swell
and sensitive guy.
In 2017, he appeared on the BBC children's show CBeebies Bedtime Stories.
"Hello, I'm Tom.
And looks who's joined us for tonight's bedtime story.
It's a sausage dog."
The actor read a story called You Must Bring a Hat, which is about a character picking
out the best hat to wear to a party.
Hardy really set the mood too, reading from a couch covered with stuffed animals and his
dog, Woody, sitting in his lap.
The sneering, no-nonsense Jason Statham represents a new breed of action heroes: athletic, but
not comically covered in muscles like your typical big-screen badass.
He's quick and agile, but still strong and super-violent in manic action movies such
as Crank and The Transporter.
Back before he roughed up stuntmen on the reg, Statham was a world-class athlete in
a sport not generally considered "tough."
Young Statham's athletic pursuit of choice was diving.
He was a member of England's national swim team for around a decade and competed at the
1990 Commonwealth Games.
"I was on the British team for almost ten years.
It was a silly thing.
I got into it really late."
After getting out of the pool for the last time, Statham then entered into the action-packed,
tough-guy world of modeling.
Hey, who doesn't love a guy with versatility?
Terry Crews is what one would call musclebound, but he's so much more than that.
Sure, that physique gets him cast in action movies like The Expendables, gigs as the Old
Spice Guy, and the role of yogurt-loving super-strong police sergeant Terry Jeffords on Brooklyn
Nine-Nine.
"Chest bump me!"
"You don't wanna do this, man."
"No, I really do."
"It hurts you every time."
"No, I know, but I'm fired up, the adrenaline is going to carry me through."
"Here we go."
This ex-NFL player may look majorly macho on the outside, but Crews is a bit of a Renaissance
man.
For starters, he's a ridiculously talented artist who earned an art scholarship.
He even worked as a courtroom sketch artist.
"Yeah, this is all by hand."
"Thank you!
My mother would be so proud."
Even more impressive: Crews has been willing to challenge machismo in the entertainment
industry by becoming one of Hollywood's most outspoken male allies in the #MeToo and Time's
Up movements, lending a hand in efforts of eradicating sexual assault in showbiz.
He's done that, in part, by speaking out about his own assault, Crews accused a major Hollywood
player of groping him in 2016.
"I felt nothing but rage.
Rage, Mike.
But my wife prepared me: she said, "Terry, you cannot handle these kinds of things with
violence."
Though this list is about actors who aren't really as tough as they appear on screen,
we'd argue that Crews' actions prove he's even stronger than we thought.