Sylvester Stallone is one of the most well-recognized faces in Hollywood, having starred in massive projects like the Rambo franchise, First Blood, The Expendables franchise, and Cobra. He has made a name for himself as one of the most influential actors in action movies with these projects alone but his most well-known and iconic work has to be his role as Rocky Balboa in the Rocky franchise.
The actor starred in the franchise for six movies before his unfortunate departure, where he had to go against many foes of the character including Apollo Creed, played by Carl Weathers. What is however very interesting to know is that Weathers almost lost the role of the character when he brutally insulted Stallone during his audition for the role.
Carl Weathers Talks About His Audition For Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky
Sylvester Stallone is one of the most well-known actors in the action movie genre, but before his working in the extremely famous franchise, Rocky, he was fairly unknown. This extended to his co-star Carl Weathers, who royally screwed up during his audition as Apollo Creed. When the actor was giving his audition, he read the script in front of a writer and Stallone himself. What Weathers did not know, was that Stallone was the lead in the movie and not just someone on the production team.
“I was introduced to him [Sylvester Stallone], the writer,” Weathers revealed.“He comes into the room, out of some vestibule somewhere, and he sits down. They introduce, ‘Well, this is the writer of the screenplay.’ So I’m reading with him.” he added,“I’m standing up, I’m chomping at the bit,” he recalled. “I’ve got all this energy going. And at the end of it, the reading, it’s like, quiet. It’s like crickets, man.”
Weathers was required to read his lines, while the Rocky actor read everything else, being introduced as the writer of the screenplay. The problem rose when he started to perform his lines, giving the performance of his life, and all that Stallone gave him were deadpan and silent reactions. This naturally cause the actor quite a lot of frustration and made him extremely nervous, resulting in him making some poor choices.
Carl Weathers Unknowingly Insulted Sylvester Stallone During His Audition for Rocky
Carl Weathers, in a moment of frustration, tried to credit his poor performance during the audition on the fact that he was being made to read lines with someone who was not an actor, not knowing that Sylvester Stallone was the lead he was supposed to play against in Rocky. He, instead, suggested that an actor be brought in to read lines with him so that he could give a better performance. This comment completely infuriated Stallone, who started asking Weathers who he thought he was.
“I’m really nervous because I think I blew the interview and blew the audition. So I chirp out, ‘You know, if you get me a real actor I could do a lot better,’ And Stallone looks up at me like, ‘This idiot, who’s he? Who does he think he is?’ As far as I know, as far as I’ve heard, one thing Sly always said was, ‘He was so arrogant, I knew he could do the role, but I wasn’t being arrogant, I was being nervous, man. I wanted the role!”
What is however unexpected is that the Apollo Creed actor thinks that this outburst might be the reason why he got the role. He elaborated by stating that Stallone thought that the actor was being incredibly arrogant and that made him perfect for the role. That however was not the case as Weathers explained that he was not being arrogant, but he was simply nervous that he was screwing up his audition.