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Nikita Koloff has now retired from the wrestling ring and is perhaps best known for his time at Jim Crockett Promotions in the mid-to-late 1980s, where he wrestled alongside high talents including Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes. Since then he has started his own wrestling promotion, as well as branching out into a film career.
Koloff has opened up about his past audition for the role of Drago in the hit film Rocky 4 in a recent interview with Pro Wrestling Defined.
"I got the short straw when I had the first screen test. I did two by myself then Stallone says "hey let's do one together," and I was like "okay, cool". And he's like "when you do it, deliver your lines and halfway through turn and stand shoulder to shoulder, and the turn towards me, just do a face to face kind of staredown."
Nikita Koloff continued, discussing the feedback that he was given during his screen test.
"So I did, and we're just, staring face to face and then the part I'll never forget is when... the director's like, "well, it was really good until you turned towards each other and then we lost you in his shadow."
Nikita Koloff shares a name with a Rocky 4 character
Continuing the discussion about almost getting cast in Rocky 4, Koloff also revealed the moment he found out that he shared the name of a character in the movie. Koloff recalled a recent fan interaction that led to the revelation, saying:
"Recently, I jut found out - a fan actually said "hey, did you ever get paid for this?", and I'm like "What are they talking about?", and I went and looked it up. Do you know the managers - I didn't get the role - but interestingly, I didn't know this until the last few weeks. Dargo's manager's name in the movie was Nikolai Koloff."
Nikita Koloff didn't get cast in Rocky 4 despite coming close. He did, however, star in reality television series Preacher's Daughters, released three books, and became a podcast host.
The full interview with Nikita Koloff is available here.
