What To Know
- Sylvester Stallone revealed that his father’s cameo as the bell ringer in the original Rocky film led to chaos and a heated altercation on set.
- Stallone also discussed his difficult and abusive relationship with his father.
- Stallone’s memoir, The Steps, is being released on September 29, and the biopic I Play Rocky, about the making of the first Rocky film, premieres in theaters on November 6.
Sylvester Stallone‘s dad, Francesco ‘Frank’ Stallone Sr., made a cameo as the bell ringer in the first Rocky film — and things got “really nasty” on set, the actor recently revealed.
In an interview with The New York Times published on September 26, Stallone, 80, opened up about his abusive father. He also detailed how giving him a small role in the 1976 movie quickly went awry.
“It was like: I just want you to love me for a little bit,” Stallone said of Frank Sr.’s role in the final fight scene. “Like, look what I did! Share it with me. I know you thought I was a fool my whole life, but here we are.”
However, on the day of filming for the scene, Frank Sr. “didn’t ring the bell properly,” as his son “kept fighting and fighting and fighting.”
“Everything’s choreographed,” Stallone explained, “It’s one, two, three, four, bell. Not six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Carl Weathers is like, ‘What’s going on?’”
He added, “And of course it ended up in an altercation by the end. It got really nasty. A really bad Italian drama. But for a moment I thought, Jesus, he’d be proud.”
Additionally, Stallone recounted how his father remained “very cold and tough” until they reconciled before his death in 2011.
“It would be these constant bombastic explosions and then total silence,” he recounted. “If he and I were talking and I said, ‘I don’t know if I agree with that,’ he’d start spinning his fork and suck his teeth, and you knew what was coming. The next thing you know, wham!”
Stallone added, “He had very big hands. You learn to duck. I didn’t put a lot of stuff in the book because I didn’t want a pity party, but it was insane.”
In addition to Stallone as Rocky and Weathers as Apollo Creed, the first Rocky film starred Talia Shire as Adrian, Burt Young as Paulie, and Burgess Meredith as Mickey.
Stallone’s memoir The Steps will be released on September 29. Meanwhile, the biopic I Play Rocky — starring Anthony Ippolito as a young Stallone writing and taking on the lead in the first Rocky film — hits theaters in early November.
Rocky, streaming on Netflix; I Play Rocky, hits theaters on November 6