The artist’s difficult youth inspired him to write and star in the now classic boxing film
Recently, instead of retiring, old action heroes have resurfaced on the big screen and streaming platforms. These men (and women) into their 60s and beyond, are still fighting as they always have.
76-year-old Sylvester Stallone he is always ahead of the curve in everything he does. In 2022, the actor returned to his … roots as a working-class superhero in the film ‘Samaritan’ and starred in the crime series ‘Tulsa King’. He also produced ‘Creed’, a successful ‘Rocky’ spin-off. Stallone not only starred in the film, but also wrote the script. The script for “Rocky” came to producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff with only one condition: the writer would also play the lead.
At the time, Stallone had only appeared in The Lords of Flatbush (1974), an independent film about a Brooklyn street gang. The producers saw her and enthusiastically accepted the term, believing Perry King, the handsome square-jawed blond, to be the scriptwriter. Their delusion was shattered when they learned that Stallone was the one who had written the script.
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Producers struggled. They warned that they would only make the film if Ryan O’Neill played the title role and offered Stallone $180,000 to stay home. Stallone only had $106 in his bank account, his wife was pregnant with their first child, and he had sold his dog Butkus because he couldn’t keep him. Still, Stallone said no. Aware of his potential, the producers raised their offer to $360,000. Again, Stallone refused. “I told my wife I’d rather bury it in the back yard and let the caterpillars play Rocky. I would hate myself for selling out. My wife agreed and said she’d be willing to move into a trailer in the middle of a swamp if she had to,'” he explained to the New York Times after the premiere.
The story of the film came to Stallone as if by magic after watching a fight between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner, a boxer who measured his fights by knockouts.
“I was watching the game and I said to myself, ‘Let’s talk about broken dreams and people sitting on the sidewalk watching their dreams go away.'” He locked himself in his house and wrote. Wepner became Rocky Balboa, named after boxer Rocky Marciano and Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa. Stallone wrote 90 pages in three days. The writing came easily because this story of heroes facing their destiny was also his story.
Stallone’s struggles began at birth. The doctor who delivered him accidentally severed his facial nerve, leaving his lips, chin and half of his tongue partially paralyzed for the rest of his life. This injury caused difficulty in speaking, which made him vulnerable to neighborhood “bullies”. They made fun of his looks, his voice, even his name, to make fun of him, they called him ‘Sylvia’.
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His family environment was equally turbulent. For better or worse, his mother, Jackie Stallone, was an astrologer. His father was a polo player with anger management issues. According to his mother, “his father was the most sadistic man born on this earth.”
However, the worst abuse Stallone faced from his father was not physical. She was telling him: “You will never amount to anything. You were born with paralysis, you will never make it in school or in anything you do in life.” One of Frank Stallone’s harshest lines finally found its way into the Rocky script: “You’re born without much of a brain, so you better start using your body.”
Stallone has always been underrated. His mother suspected that her son had a hidden talent (as all mothers do) and took him to a career counselor for advice on his future career. The answer was quite specific: “Your son is well suited to become an electrician’s assistant, mainly in the elevator field.”
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Stallone again had other plans. He rented a cheap apartment in Manhattan and began frequenting theaters. He made his debut playing a minotaur in the only work Picasso ever wrote. He wanted to be an actor, but he longed even more to be a screenwriter. “A screenwriter creates work for 300 people and entertainment for three million, so who is the most important person in a movie?” he said. He painted the windows in his house black so he wouldn’t know whether it was night or day, turned off the phone and lights, and wrote intently by candlelight. By the time “Rocky” was finished, he had already written a dozen other scripts.
The memories of these hardships kept Stallone going until the producers finally relented and agreed to let him play the lead role. In return, the amount of money they offered him was dramatically reduced: he received only $20,000 for the script and $625 a week for the lead role.
To keep costs down, Stallone cast members of his own family in some of the roles: Frank’s father is the man who rings the bell before each match, Frank’s brother Jr. plays a street singer, and his then-wife Sasha appeared as a photographer. The location of the film was non-negotiable: it would take place in Philadelphia, a city that represented the working class and was a place where Stallone spent part of his childhood.
As the release neared, the film started creating buzz. People began to think that it might not be the failure that everyone was predicting. And of course, the film made waves.
The film grossed $225 million and received ten Academy Award nominations. Stallone himself received two nominations, making him only the third actor after Charles Chaplin and Orson Welles to be nominated in both the screenplay and acting categories.
On the night of the Oscars, Stallone’s film was competing with the films “Taxi Driver”, “All the President’s Men” and “Network”, but the name announced by Jack Nicholson when he opened the envelope was….. ” Rocky”. Rocky also won the Academy Awards for Best Editing and Best Director. Stallone himself didn’t take home any Oscars, but he was the big winner of the night. He had finally managed to prove himself to everyone. Stallone has said that his appearance often determined what people thought of him. They were wrong…
Source :Skai
I am Frederick Tuttle, who works in 247 News Agency as an author and mostly cover entertainment news. I have worked in this industry for 10 years and have gained a lot of experience. I am a very hard worker and always strive to get the best out of my work. I am also very passionate about my work and always try to keep up with the latest news and trends.
