“Just Wrote…What I Knew” – Golden Globe Winner Sylvester Stallone Speaks About Creating the Boxing Classic “Rocky”

“I didn’t have the bones to be a Shakespearean actor,” says Hollywood’s Rambo, Sylvester Stallone. Before the star made an entry into Hollywood, he had to face a daunting reality.

This is a remarkable tale of a star, best known for his iconic roles like Rocky Balboa and John Rambo. Stallone recently opened up about his early days as an actor in the industry. His cinematic journey as an actor is marked by an unlikely genesis making his life’s story even more intriguing.

Stallone’s unconventional journey from usher to underdog

Last Friday, the star graced the Toronto Film Festival with his presence. During a conversation at the event, Stallone talked about his journey in the U.S. film industry.

Stallone walked down memory lane as he talked about the job he got after his college days as an usher in movie theatres. But, instead of treating it as a struggling time, he treated it as an opportunity. “Watching those films over and over and over, you get to see the magic. You realize, here comes that scene again.”, he wittily added, “And then I said, I can do better than that. And then I realized I couldn’t, okay,”.

He used the experience he gathered from watching and rewatching movies as the key to screenwriting. He revisited the time he wrote the iconic ‘Rocky Balboa’. “I just wrote about what I knew. I was writing about this little kind of mentally challenged guy who happened to have a lot of heart”, said Stallone about the character he shaped.

Read More: Before Rocky’s Success, Sylvester Stallone “Was Out There Eating Rats and Fly”

But, unfortunately, he had to struggle with the best he had. No one in the industry was ready to accept the script and the character that was just waiting to get immortalized. 

The “Rocky” star candidly highlighted the fact that he did not fit the conventional mold or expectations of the Shakespearean gravitas that often inspires aspiring actors

Stallone’s enlightenment from ‘Hercules’ to ‘Rocky’

The 1958 Warner Bros adventure fantasy flick ‘Hercules’ starring mid-50s Italian-made Sword-and-Sandal superstar, Steve Reeves had a deep impact on the 12-year-old Stallone. 

He considered himself lucky to be during the “golden age of films when dialogue was important.” Stallone further added, referring to the ancient mythological films, “…dialogue didn’t move me as much as the actual physical embodiment of overcoming odds,”.

“Coming to the rescue, not so much as a superhero, just as a guy who was forced to,” said Stallone referring to the inspiration he gathered from comic books and action-hero fantasies from a tender age.

Stallone during the conversation also said, “It’s important as an artist to know what your strengths are, but more important to know your weaknesses” providing a life lesson for the budding actors.

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