Rocky - Interview with Sylvester Stallone (1976)

extraordinary talent and sheer guts of our next guest is being talked about in the whole movie industry I'm sure you've heard just a lot about the trade pictures yeah well new york and new west magazines wrote about his determination not to sell the movie he wrote for himself called rocky unless he could star in it please welcome the writer and the star of rocky Sylvester Stallone [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so wonderful thank you thank you really an incredible movie because it starts out so simply and it's gentle and this gentle soul turns out to be a killer not really kind of a dedicated well he's fighting for his the spirit of man which has been denied him all his life it goes with I think anyone in the audience can identify with we all have a potential I think and when that potential isn't realized whether you're an actor a comedian dancer and no one gives you a chance then you feel well I've been a totally wasted life and usually you become deviant he goes into somewhat semi crime other people end up on a psychiatrist's couch Hostel divorcing whatnot when our potential isn't realized and that's interesting because you felt very strongly I mean that's your story more than it is Rocky's right you felt that your potential wasn't being realized he built this property Hey what they weren't coming to you breaking your door down without every script in town I understand and you decided well I'm gonna write one that's me right and then when they wouldn't let you started they offered you a lot of money for other stars didn't it oh they offered while I got up in excess of like $250,000 and I had about 103 dollars in a bank but my wife is pregnant and my dog was eating furniture and really it was desperate time so I asked my wife if I said if you don't mind taking a long shot like just ended up in the backyard grazing or something I'm because we don't have any money left I'll go ahead and see if we can tangle with the power structure a little bit and you did well yeah I have nothing to lose when you have nothing to lose I know I tell you wait I want to talk to you a lot of it but first I want them to see a clip all right do you know which was a segment of the movie yeah I've always been really fast fascinated by going into like a pet shop or any type of shop and I see a woman there who no one has had to ever taking any concern of and this girl her name is Adrienne he is kind of a loser she is kind of a loser and it's together two losers are brought together now he has been desperately trying to get a date with her and he's finally gotten a date with her and he gets her up to his apartment which is like I'd say a living accident terrible place and he raises Turtles and that's all he has in his life Turtles and garbage totally so he brings into this place a few Hershey bars and that's about it he brings her in and this is her her nervousness in trying to leave and him desperately wanted her to stay and the rest I hope is history this is how it was in the Godfather Godfather right please take a look at this room well it's only temporary [Music] was to drown you don't like me like turtles was the problem I don't think I belong here it's okay I don't belong here you know it's okay cause you like guests I don't know you well enough I've never been in a man's apartment well I threw all the same [Music] yo Illinois's of comfortable reason go don't go please take off your thirst and my size don't mean I took off [Music] I always knew you was free don't tease me juice juice [Music] on occasion not to kiss me back if you don't want [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] from you said you had her she was up there to run but just goes to prove her she balls aren't doing as much in 76 as they did in World War two you know what happens before that and after that was very shy person honest in this man who obviously has never had any kind of relationship is really so touching I'm the night that he beat judges your walk up let me try can I tell him who you're talking about rocky Marciano's well I realized we both idolize but can I tell you a beautiful incident about the man I was with Rocky Marciano and Reno Nevada and rocky I think pound for pound was one of the strongest punches that ever lived as we walked in to this nightclub and we know some guy about six foot seven Wayne 380 pounds walked over and he said to Rocky I can wipe up the floor with you in a minute and Rocky turned it being said didn't I tell you when we walked in there was one guy here that could take me and that guy walked away so proud beautiful I used to do road working all the Rocky I love this you did sure up at Grossinger's mm-hmm yes nobody worked harder nobody rocky used to take 20-pound weights and punch them underwater in the pool I saw him duck walk 30 flights of stairs as part of his training program duck walk you mean down with bit on bent knees well no I meant but I'm gonna work in 24 24 eggs a day and he ran nineteen miles as much as 19 miles to make that movie every day not 19 miles altogether 19 miles a day 24 eggs under 19 miles yes and a long way to run just to get rid of 44 a yeah what you you worked I mean he really put himself well that's the thing we if you're gonna play a fighter it's that we really have to live it or I think the audience now is so discerning and so attuned to what's happening you can't cheat him on film anymore you can't just like the older fight films and the actors only had like a week to prepare they couldn't train so we just learned and for bet a lot of guys who played fighters could not know not know how to use their hands John Garfield them body and soul you're not William Holden Golden Boy did not but the one guy who knew he played a picture called winner-take-all James Cagney he knew how to throw punches and all the same he just naturally know how to move on period but the interesting thing is that he did all of these things on screen that the fighters have to do and that fight at the end which you choreographed it says an Elmo great it was incredibly real and I don't think you had a double in that penalty no we couldn't afford a double we couldn't afford that lunch now I'm confused I thought that you turned down 250,000 you have to understand you turned it all down and invested your own money no no just the work for minimum like we have a minimum actor wage virus minimum screenwriting no Joey doesn't understand the basic thing he wrote this script yes and every studio said yes or 2 or 3 studio said yes I would like to buy it but there I have a star in mind that I want he said no I wrote this for me and if you'll take me I will work for scale so he trained it himself and he held out until chart off in Winkler said yes we're gonna go on that basis and they wouldn't consider anybody else let him start his own film Oh which he had written for himself instead of taking some of the big-name stars who would have trained and it's not taken they're still taking quite a chance I mean in their minds right well sure but their budget was very low because and you went even under the budget that had been oh yeah we came in about ten dollars on there Oh what was the reaction when the studio when you first told us to do that they couldn't have this that wonderful script for all that money unless they used you in it well I I pulled up to the studio in 263 olds that had was painted rust nature it right away they said I was there to do the windows empty trash and when I asked for the money they said oh it's a joke yes there was a one-liner that guy was just in there auditioning to do Woody Allen movies and the more I stuck to it the I think the more worried they became then they said well what the helmets let's show a little pioneer spirit and I don't it went up to Arthur Krim the top of you and all the way back down again okay let him go yeah we'll give you 1 million if you go over that's too bad and the producers put up to mortgage their homes their cars their the locks the bagels everything was out you know they just put it all on the line and luckily John Ellison brought in what I think is going to go down as truly an extraordinary piece of work since it took 28 days and I think it's takes longer to hatch an egg or something yeah yeah yeah really a new 820 boy I can't get over that I watch that I walk strange myself sitting on a lot of beach balls what they didn't hatch right nope wait what you talking about John avildsen just now Joe behind director but now with the writer and the star there on the screen they put an unusual amount of pressure on him oh yeah it really did the the other thing is there was one picture taking I wish I had it now it's a 15th round bloody and gourd and nose is hanging in my ear and then he said listen could you rewrite the love scene for next Thursday so they stick up a giant bic pen in my glove and it's this claw shot and this is what the whole thing was maneuvered like that so it was I think that's what brought the movie - uh - well such a well so actual fruition it just came to it to the head because everyone had nothing to lose all the actors in it there are no names really except for burgess Meredith John avildsen was like he was borderline no one had really seen what he could do and now I think he'll surfaces a major force it's one of the finest things burgess Meredith has done in years and although yeah wonderful oh yeah he plays a 76 year old trainer this is his last chance and he's really treated everyone's lives why did Winston write who worked in Rocky's corner yeah is now almost that age and he still is down at the Olympic boxing arena there two things that but just brought up two things that we didn't mention before that rocky in the movie his idol of Rocky Marciano has a picture over the mirror and he stands there and for the stands is exquisite but the gym scenes that you had were so authentic they were you a boxer before had you worked out no I just always had an overly aggressive mouth and well that didn't take me the gyms are out no but it sure kept me in a supply of fisticuffs and yeah backyard pugilism and all that but this drab noise it's the noisiest placement if you've never been in the gym it's it's a whole of the world right Joey you're going to a trance it's the barracks and the pounding and this is what I always felt was missing from other fight films so we incorporated that and it was one scene rocky Marciano's manager at times when rocky would say listen I'm a little tired but haul off and hit him right in the jaw bang it feeling like really good like a young caveman and I said let's do that in the movie that'll look great so I he's tying a string between my feet so I I carry my body just so and I say okay Burgess during this point you just haul off and smack me right here don't miss on the chin okay it's really fragile falls off hits the earlobe right all this potatoes come out whatever comes out of your ear then the old up hits me in the nose third take third take he's knocking me out I'm playing the fighter and Burgess I'm a 5 foot 10 blood club all right times I think light will do the red shoes I mean forget it yeah so we decided not to go with burgesses punched of the year for the sake of my health yeah really did you know rocky had a a back problem all of his life did you know that yeah al wild you know who handled Rocky yeah rocky had and not many people know about it and that's really the reason his main reason for retiring was because of his back and he's the first man in the history of boxing in the heavyweight division whoever won the title without having been previously defeated mmm-hmm Tunney was defeated by Greg Dempsey was defeated that's right Joe Lewis was defeated by Schmeling in a non-title fight he was the first one record I think was 49 fights 45 knockouts four draws a four recessionary tell me did you ever think about doing the Rocky Marciano story well I couldn't take the liberties with it this man's story is much more pathetic yeah rocky was I think much more well-adjusted a fighter from the beginning great and this man really was just a bum well rocky was more of it he was a baseball player then who's the catcher great athlete by the way yes you I heard an interesting story about your mother and I'm his mother his mother beat Joe Louis his mother said she's an astrologist is he an amateur astrologist no well I what did she she gets paid so I guess you could say and she stars it was about eight years ago uh when I was just starting out in acting and I said how am I gonna do mom and she says no one will talk to you for six years she said that so no I said what do i do just disconnect the phone nail the door shut and get a job as uh as a zookeeper I don't you know I didn't know what what to do but she says you will be a writer now up in this time I had made it I was a real success at not being able to spell my name partly I was a terrible terrible terrible terrible never say diagram a sentence I had no word I said it was filthy when perhaps what do they mean you know I'm serious sorry so uh what happened now what does the Easy Rider and I was really done and out and I said well here's a movie they made 35 million dollars and since I'm doing nothing for the next six years why why don't I just go get invest in a pad and pencil if nothing else maybe I can pick you know doodle doodle for six years how nice of you to believe what your mother said I mean she said you're not gonna make it for six years and you really wanted him was to enter the monastery but nobody talks to you for six years but he misunderstood

Channel: FilMagicians

Views: 464,134

Keywords: Sylvester Stallone, interview, Rocky, Dinah Shore, Joey Bishop

Id: BKInqyUbksw

Length: 17min 17sec (1037 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 01 2017