Top bloke Mr. T pities fools, loves his mum and knows his ABCs – Always Be Cool.
You were also a bodyguard for people like Muhammad Ali, Bruce Lee...
I never bodyguarded Bruce Lee. You can’t believe everything you read.
I never even met Bruce Lee. But I did watch Enter the Dragon. First I saw the black exploitation movies and I wanted to be a pimp, so I got a hat. When the Bruce Lee movies came out, I threw the hat away and got me some karate gear. I was walking down the street barefoot, chopping everything. I got the chucking sticks and whatnot. Kept hitting myself in the head and the groin, so I put the sticks down. And I chewed onions because it made me real tough.
Sly Stallone came back as Rocky and Rambo recently. Could you still beat him in a fight like you did in the first stoush in Rocky III?
See, I’m a pretty smart guy. You know, my father told me, "It takes
a smart man to play dumb." And
my mother said, "Son, don't bite the hand that feeds you." If I didn’t need the money, I wouldn’t have let Rocky beat me. But I ain’t no fool. In the movie, he say, "Hit me. Hit me as hard as you can hit." And [Sly] said the same thing in the audition. And I thought, "Man, this guy don't know I've knocked suckers out." And you want to hit the guy to let him know you can do the part, but at the same time, I might hit him so hard he might not pay me. So I allowed Rocky to beat me. Also, you can’t beat a man in his own movie. It'd be a Mr. T movie. I’m a guest. Nobody beat me on The A-Team because that was Mr. T's show.
You competed with Hulk Hogan in the very first WrestleMania back in 1985. Do you think you could match it with the current WWE guys?
I'm so glad I was there to begin it because that stuff they got now,
it's pitiful. You got steroids running rampant, you got women like Chyna, she look like an Amazon tough guy, and you got guys with chairs and the ladders and stuff. It's not wrestling. Once I grab a guy, that's it. I put him in a lock and make him break wind. Yes indeed. Some people think when I went to Hollywood I got soft. But ain't nothing soft about me but my oatmeal that I eat. Wrestling today, it ain’t the same.
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