But even Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham couldn't escape a bloody battle sequence on set of The Expendables 3 without a few scrapes.
While the muscular duo's injuries were clearly the work of a pro make-up artist, they looked convincingly roughed up for the tense shooting taking place in Varna, east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, on Thursday.
Sly took a short break from his gun fighting duties to receive a gift from the mayor of Varna, Ivan Portnih.
As the 67-year-old action legend ceremoniously accepted the honour he was flanked by former UFC champion Randy Couture and martial arts star Wesley Snipes.
The trio looked convincingly like they'd just gotten out of a war zone as the dignitary presented them each with a gift bag.
The Rocky star matched Statham, 45, in army fatigues as they rested in-between the surely taxing stunt-heavy sequences.
The set for the day of filming was intended to mimic a Somali shipyard with various extras walking around toting AK 47s.
Meanwhile, the latest additions to the film Antonio Banderas and Mel Gibson, who were brought on to replace Willis were nowhere to be seen.
Bruce was reportedly ditched from the upcoming movie - which is penned by Sylvester - after demanding an astronomical $4million fee.
Despite already commanding a rather generous pay packet for the role, which required four days of consecutive work on location in Bulgaria, the 58-year-old actor is said to have wanted an eye-popping million dollars a day.
A source told The Hollywood Reporter: 'He said he'd drop out unless he got $4million. A million dollars a day. Stallone and everybody else involved said no.'
And the demands didn't appear to have gone down too well with Stallone, who replaced Willis on the project with fellow A-list actor Harrison Ford within just 72 hours.
The source added: 'I think [Willis] was pretty surprised he was replaced in 72 hours by Harrison Ford - a better actor, a much nicer person and a more interesting direction for the film.'
Stallone raised eyebrows earlier in the month when he launched an astonishing attack on his fellow action man.
Moments after announcing the Die Hard favourite was being replaced by Harrison Ford in the third film in his Expendables franchise, the 67-year-old branded his former colleague 'greedy,' 'lazy' and a 'failure' on his Twitter page.
It would have been a surprise for fans of the series, as Willis appeared in both the previous films as Mr Church, a CIA agent who would pay the film's eponymous band of mercenaries to carry out dangerous missions.
Stallone's announcement on Twitter initially seemed upbeat,as he said: 'WILLIS OUT... HARRISON FORD IN !!!! GREAT NEWS !!!!! Been waiting years for this!!!!'
However it seemed there was more to the casting change than initially met the eye, as moments later he wrote: 'GREEDY AND LAZY ...... A SURE FORMULA FOR CAREER FAILURE.'
A spokesman for Stallone, who created the franchise, confirmed the actor had been talking about his old colleague and rival, but refused to comment further.
The Expendables 3, directed by Patrick Hughes, is currently in pre-production and is slated for a late 2014 release.
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