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Sylvester Stallone opened up in a rare and very personal conversation to talk about the movie, the trauma he went through as a kid, and the consequent art he created. He even went so far as to say that Rocky was a love story and not a boxing movie, which was an unexpected view. It was the interview conducted to promote the actor’s Kennedy Center Honors that brought the emotional core behind the image of an action hero to light.
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You think you know Sylvester Stallone, right? The guy with the steps, headbands, and one-word answers. But, in a new, long interview, the 77-year-old superstar showed the least accessible parts of him. It was raw, it was emotional, and it did a complete turnaround in the story of the births of Rocky Balboa and John Rambo.
The phone talk recorded at his Florida home was part of the process of awarding him the Kennedy Center Honor. He did, however, never refuse to discuss the whole thing. He talked about the bullying he went through as a kid, and the birth defect that caused him to have a drooping face and a loud slurred voice. “I had no friends,” he admitted. “I would even manage to steal money just to buy a friend.” It was no different at home because his father was the type of man that Stallone characterized as both physically and emotionally abusive. “You learn to just expect it,” he said. “For example, my father would whistle and I would know it was coming.”
He sought refuge in film and looked at superheroes like Steve Reeves as gods. Ultimately that view took him first to New York, then to writing, and finally to the ‘Rocky’ script. The studio was very eager to get it—actually desperate. The only thing they didn’t want was him. He was offered an astonishingly large sum to step aside, which today would be worth over $2 million. He turned down the offer. “I could never do it,” he said. History was, of course, the one created by the risk taken.
Winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, however, was bittersweet. “It was very sad,” Stallone confessed. “Because… you want the people you love, the ones that denied you, to be there. Now you are… And they don’t want to.” The references to his parents were quite apparent. “Kids are like soft clay,” he compared. “You mold them, you dent them, and sometimes you hurt them… I carry it with me.”
He declared the pain, he said, is the very essence of the characters he has created. John Rambo? “My father. That’s 100%… I just cloned him.” But Rambo was also a “disenfranchised child” of America, reflecting the feeling of being dismissed. And Rocky? Stallone visibly becomes irritated when the movie gets classified as a sports film. “It’s a love story,” he asserts. “This guy has never been picked… He realizes he can’t win… and then he comes to Adrian. That’s his victory.”
The interview profoundly resonated with the internet public, most of whom pointed out his frank revelation of vulnerability. One user said, “The part about his father whistling before the abuse… that was very painful. So much is disclosed about the characters he created.” It was a moment that connected the imaginary conflicts on screen with a very real and painful past.
Another point of discussion was the commenter’s observation of his creative perseverance: “More than 40 scripts turned into films. One hit every decade for 50 years. This guy is a machine. His writing genius is not being recognized enough.” This was a point highlighted in the conversation about the vast production and the long duration of his career that is usually overshadowed by the iconic images.
The audience’s reaction to Stallone’s parenting remarks was such that it made the discussion even more thought-provoking: “’Kids are soft clay’ – that line will stick with me for a long time. What a powerful, heart-wrenching way to put it. He is now talking about legacy in a totally different way.” It shifted the attention from the accolades to the personal influence, the hard-earned lessons.
Stallone also reminisced about the lowest moments in his career, the flops that left “spider webs on the phone,” and the personal rebirth that came along with the 2006 release of ‘Rocky Balboa,’ a movie that the studio had first turned down. “That was going to be my last movie because I just did not want to be a total loser,” he declared. “Especially not with Rocky.”
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The talk turned into a teaching moment on how personal history contributes to the making of art. It was not just a showing of clips from films; it was a digging up of the man behind the legend. Sylvester Stallone, the steps and headbands icon, also recently celebrated the success of his show Tulsa King. His career has even been the subject of a unique documentary parody by Kyle Dunnigan. He also once revealed the truth behind Rocky’s iconic steps scene.
