Everyone had their fun when Sylvester Stallone announced he was writing Rocky VI, but now that the new training montages are playing on TV, who's laughing now? Stallone knows that Rocky is his most popular character and makes no bones about returning to the well. Throughout his career, he has faced adversity when he tried to stray too far from the underdog tale.
"Rocky came out on two screens so it really took a long time and it was out there for almost a year, so it burnt its way into the American consciousness," he said. "I became incredibly identified with it, probably inextricably forever. And when I would go against that everything was held up to Rocky, so if the projects I found myself involved with didn't have a certain kind of heart, or a certain kind of expectancy of the audience wanted to be taken on that kind of journey again, I think they felt it was a disappointment, it was a let down. Right after Rocky was F.I.S.T., and F.I.S.T. is a pretty good film, but I think it didn't have enough of what people were expecting. And then I went with Paradise Alley, which was a character, it was kind of disdainful. I mean, I liked the character a lot but he was the antithesis of Rocky, so that kind of got people confused, because I never really fit into the character actor category, I would have like to but it just didn't happen. So that's what I think it is."
Rocky Balboa is just as personal as the original Rocky. Reliving the glory days of his fights with customers at his local restaurant, Rocky Balboa gets one last chance to show he's still a champ in an exhibition fight with the current young champ. Going up against Antonio Tarver was the real deal for Stallone.
"When we got to Vegas I was really nervous because I had to come down the aisle with 9,000 people, not ready at all, and I've got a world champion there who's just knocked out the best pound for pound fighter in the past ten years. So I said, 'Antonio, I have an idea of how this should work, I think we should go from this corner to that corner to there, I'm not sure how we get there, let's just actually move and if you hit me you hit me.'"
Both fighters did get hit for real, and in fact Stallone had to face up to all the critics, professional and personal, to even do the final chapter. "My wife was afraid of me doing this film. She was crying, 'Don't do this. You're going to be embarrassed.' I said, 'I know, but I just got to try it. I feel it.' So Dixon in the movie, his trainer says that until a man, and this means a woman too, has been through a real baptism of fire, when you're scared, when you're hanging on, when someone is hurting you, which is life is hurting you, then you're really going to see what you're made of and then you're going to get the only kind of respect in the world that matters, is self-respect. That's pretty much what my journey has been. This has all been about getting Rocky self-respect, and maybe a little bit of that will wipe off on me."
The film also deals with Rocky and his son, who feels his whole life has been spent in daddy's shadow. "I've played that last scene a lot with my son, and I'm sure I'll play it again many more times. It's a dilemma being my son, it's not an easy thing to be, and I pretty much tell him the same thing. You have two choices, to live in the shadow and shrink or step outside, but whatever you do, do not use it as an excuse. That just doesn't hold water."
Stallone has already announced plans for a Rambo IV as well, but that will be it for his franchise characters. Looking ahead, he might be willing to start making movies that don't pay $20 million.
"Yeah, $20 million dollars, remember them days? Early on everyone should do every time they do a big film, they should do a little film. It really does keep you grounded. I would probably like to direct Poe after this. I wouldn't even be in it, I would just be behind the camera. It's something that I've wanted to do. I talk about it so much, I feel like I've made it 50 times. It'll probably bomb anyway, but I'll do it. It's one of those tough subjects, but it's a fantastic character piece. So that's what I would probably do and then after that who knows."
Rocky Balboa opens Wednesday.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Interview-Sylvester-Stallone-4150.html
