Sylvester Stallone became famous after he starred in the iconic role of Rocky Balboa in the 1976 movie Rocky. With an original script to his name, the actor fought hard and fast with the studio to cast him in the role and nobody else no matter the money they paid him to walk it off.
Talking about the iconic origin of the story of Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone confessed that it was a long and painful road. Recalling his negotiations with the studios and his ex-friend and producer Irwin Winkler came to be, Stallone called the making of the movie “blissful stupidity”!
Sylvester Stallone Called Making Rocky “Blissful Stupidity”!
In 1976, Sylvester Stallone came up with the brilliant idea of creating the character of Rocky Balboa. An underdog who goes on to win big at the major leagues, the film was very well received and Stallone became a famous actor.
Talking about the making of the movie, Stallone recalled the painstaking process it took to put together the 2-hour movie and the countless negotiations he had to deal with. Remembering the amount of money involved and the politics, Stallone’s old interview on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson recently resurfaced on the Internet.
“It was quite a long shot. If I had known it was gonna be this difficult, I wouldn’t have done it. I think it was a classic case of blissful stupidity. Because I didn’t know you could do something like this. To me, it seemed very normal honking your horn on the driveway of the producer and tapping on his window at odd hours in the night and saying ‘Please, please, please’”
The actor further stated that the studios eventually decided to give him a surplus amount of money to just walk away from the role.
“It was getting desperado time. So they offered, first was a $100,000 for the script and a $150,000 to take a walk. They went up to about $265,000. I felt as if though the money meant nothing. I had about a $106 in the bank.”
Eventually, the studio decided to give in and gave the role of Rocky Balboa to Sylvester Stallone. The difficult journey did not end there, since as per trivia, the producers of the movie, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff had to mortgaged their houses to finish the film!
Rocky Producers Even Mortgaged Their Houses For Sylvester Stallone
As per trivia, the funding of Rocky was so mismanaged that around $100,000 more had to be put into the movie. With the studios refusing to pay any more, the producers of the movie, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff decided to mortgage their homes to get the last $100,000.
Lucky for them, the movie managed to break all odds and Sylvester Stallone became iconic in his role of Rocky Balboa. The movie spawned its own franchise which later turned into a cinematic universe with the release of Creed in 2015. The Sylvester Stallone starrer Rocky is currently available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.