Sylvester Stallone Wore Body Armor So Wesley Snipes Could 'Really Lay Into' Him In Demolition Man

Wesley Snipes was an electrifying actor from the very beginning. He didn't exactly burst onto the scene in 1986 via the duo of Michael Ritchie's "Wildcats" and Joe Roth's "Streets of Gold," but, from the vantage point of my parents' living room, where I watched these movies many times on pay cable, I knew he was something special. He confirmed this and then some with his blazingly charismatic portrayal of pro baseball speedster Willie Mays Hayes in "Major League." Two years later, he turned in one of the greatest gangster performances of all time as Nino Brown in "New Jack City," at which point every new Snipes movie was an event.

Snipes proved to be a savvy movie star, often going for two-handers so as to protect his commerciality (i.e., if a movie bombed, he wouldn't shoulder the blame alone), which was wholly understandable but a tad disappointing to those of us who wanted to see him take more risks. But while the movies occasionally lacked ambition, Snipes never phoned in a performance during his early prime. He was fully committed to every role with a gleeful fierceness; he loved being a star and knew we loved watching him flaunt his fabulous stuff.

Sylvester Stallone was struck by this quality when he co-starred with Snipes in the satirical sci-fi/action extravaganza "Demolition Man" in 1993, which called for the two men to engage in ferocious hand-to-hand combat. Stallone, as ever, wanted their brawls to look bruisingly real, so, knowing Snipes would give him everything he could handle, the veteran action hero donned body armor to protect himself.

In a recent interview with GQ, Stallone praised Snipes' passion for performing, while expressing just how impressed he was by his co-star's physicality. Per Sly:

"He's a wild man, very energetic, good fighter. When we were doing kicks, there were some of these, like a plate here [pointing to the side of his torso], so he could really lay into me, and I could feel it and it was good. But Wesley, he really dug down there and gave a very memorable character. Things with his hair and his voice and he was good. He was at the top of his game then."

Snipes goes at Stallone with incredible gusto in "Demolition Man," and must've left an impression (physically and mentally) because Sly recruited him for "The Expendables 3." Snipes has had a rollercoaster career (thanks in part to his income tax conviction, which earned him a three-year prison sentence), but he was terrific in 2019's "Dolemite Is My Name" and easily the best part of the otherwise dismal "Coming 2 America." It was a thrill to see him get a Blade curtain call in "Deadpool & Wolverine," but he's got nothing on the horizon. Someone get this man a television series already – or, here's a thought, let him join Stallone's "Tulsa King" party. We need more Wesley Snipes in our lives.