Sly Stallone Surprises Rome

Sylvester Stallone in Bullet to the Head

Dear Blog Readers,

This week I am covering the Rome Film Festival.  There have been lots of films that I would love to write about and I haven’t had time, but I do want to write about Sylvester Stallone today.  I was never a Sylvester Stallone fan.  Rocky and Rambo weren’t my favorite movies, and  he has always been just too macho for me.  But today I had to cover Sylvester Stallone presenting his latest film BULLET TO THE HEAD, directed by Walter Hill, and I have to admit I was totally surprised and charmed.  I don’t have time to write more now, but I will share the long quotes from the press conference during which he spilled forth amusing anecdotes and Stallonian pearls of wisdom that are too long to make it into an AP story.

Sylvester Stallone on red carpet in Rome. Freeze frame of video shot by Fulvio Paolocci

SYLVESTER STALLONE ON HIS EARLY EXPERIENCE IN HOLLYHOOD

“When I went to Hollywood, I was very optimistic, and I thought everyone liked me, I loved them and they loved me.  And then one day, well — we did Rocky and Rocky had made much money.  But I hadn’t been paid. Nothing! I am still living in a bad apartment, so I went to the studio head and said, “can I be paid, you’ve made 100 million dollars, the movie cost 800 thousand dollars, you must have made some money.”  And he goes “just go back and do your work,” cause I was working on another film.  I said “I am not going back to work until you tell me why I can’t have my money.” And all of a sudden, this 30-year-old said “because we don’t care about you. We care about us. You get your ass back to work and we will pay you when we feel like it”  And right then I went “Thank you” cause now I understand it is a business, it is not a love affair, and you have to look out for yourself, and from that point on I tried to do films about always overcoming obstacles, and trying to be true to yourself and so I wasn’t angry at the man, I was saying thank you for educating me that this is our business, it is not a fun factory.  This is not a bunch of joy, this is serious work, where peoples’ egos are on the line and somehow out of all this chaos, wonderful creativity comes, but you have to realize you only have yourself to depend on, period.”

SYLVESTER STALLONE ON THE FIRST TIME HE MET WOODY ALLEN

“It is really funny. Actually, it is a life changing experience. Meeting Woody Allen.  I was nobody. And they needed somebody to be a bad guy. So me and this other fellow who was much shorter, went up to Woody Allen and he was extremely nervous and it was in a movie called “Bananas” and we were supposed to attack him in the subway and he throws us out.  And he was very shy, he wouldn’t even look at me.  And he looked at the assistant director and he goes, “tell them they are not scary.” So the assistant director goes, “he says, you are not scary enough, you are not intimidating.” I was about 22 years-old.  I go, “really? ok, I quit, hell with it.” And the little guy said “why are we quitting?”  I said, “because he doesn’t want us. We are not scary.” So he goes, “what do you mean we are not scary? We will be right back.”  He took me upstairs, we were in the subway, we went to a pharmacy.  He got some vaseline, put some grease on our face, took some dirt, for real, we messed up our hair, went back and the little guy taps Woody Allen on the shoulder.  Woody Allen is like this (jumps), “ARE WE SCARY NOW, HUH???” And Woody Allen was so nervous, he goes “hire em, hire em, hire em.”  And I never forgot that. Never give up, never give up, Never give up.”

(note blog readers, you can check out the scene with Woody Allen and Stallone here: Woody and Stallone in Bananas)

SYLVESTER STALLONG RESPONDING TO QUESTION ABOUT WHAT ACTORS DO WHEN THEY ARE NOT ACTING

“That’s a good question. I’ve always wondered what actors do when they only do one film a year, one film every two years, some actors one film every five years. What do you do? Where do you spend your time? Do you play with your dog? Do you paint? Do you cook? What do you do for five damn years? You know, people cook, fighters fight, actors act.  Sometimes you are in films that are bad but you are acting, because you have got to be constantly using the machine, it is like keeping a car in the garage for 3 or 4 years, it doesn’t work!  The battery doesn’t work, the car goes uh-hu, uh-hu, uh-hu.  It doesn’t work.  So, what I do is, I chase my daughters around the house.  That’s what keeps me really, really busy.  Oh my God! It is the truth, I came into my life like Rambo, like Rocky– boom, boom.  No problem. And then one girl, two girls, three of them, then I realized in my house, you got 3 girls, a wife, two housekeepers and all the dogs are girls, 5 dogs.  It is just me, and my dog that was castrated.”

SYLVESTER STALLONE ON MEETING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE IN A ROUGH NEIGHBORHOOD ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF ROME

“I came from a very, very bad place to a very good place and people should not, and I have told this to young people, do not be afraid of failure, you are going to fail one thousand times, but every time you fail, you get wiser and wiser until you become successful.”

 

10 thoughts on “Sly Stallone Surprises Rome”

    1. Thank you Els. Yes, in addition to his amusing anecdotes Stallone delivered some simple truths like hanging on to your dreams and never giving up. And he certainly provides a good example of someone who pursued his dreams and did not give up.

  1. I love his first quote on Hollywood being some kind of Woodstock place, all about love. He must had seen too many movies already! =))

  2. Fantastic!! I was never a big “Sly” fan myself, but a certain someone in my life has taught me to appreciate his bad boy charm, not to mention his dedication and preserverence. Hope to see you soon!

    1. Hi Tiffany — Stallone’s perseverance is definitely to be admired. He has proven to himself and the world that with determination you can reach your dreams.
      I enjoyed seeing your maritino at the film festival and hope to see you soon.

  3. Well I’m glad to know there is an interesting and observant side of Sylvester Stallone. Thanks for helping me have a better understanding of the world of entertainment.

    JWT 26 in Tucson

    1. I learn a lot about the world of entertainment myself when I cover this Rome Film Festival. It is so different from everything else I do on my job. What is particularly interesting about the Rome film festival is that because it is a small, new festival it doesn’t get much in the way of Hollywood stars and films and gets a lot of alternative films from far-off countries. There were 26 countries participating in this year’s festival. I covered a beautiful film by a Tajik director called WAITING FOR THE SEA, and a heart-wrenching epic by a Chinese director on the Henan Famine called BACK TO 1942, and a psychedelic, feminist film by an Indian director from Kolkata called TASHER DESH. They all showed me a world view very different from anything American and a style very distant from that of Hollywood.

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