Sylvester Stallone and Rocky Balboa have Something in Common

Sylvester Stallone and Rocky Balboa have something in common…the passion and persistence to follow their dreams and accomplish them despite of multiple failures and rejections.

If a movie with no big stars and made on a very modest budget of $1.1 million went to become one of the biggest blockbuster of all times with global earnings more than $ 225 million- there must be something special about that movie.

Yes, there is!!

It is the story of an underdog boxer who fight against all adversities with his hard work and perseverance to rise to the occasion and prove himself to everyone by giving a neck to neck fight to his opponent, the Heavyweight Champion. I am talking about the movie Rocky (1976), one of the biggest blockbuster of all times having won three Oscar awards.

Don’t worry!!

I know that you have already seen the movie and I am not going to bore you by telling any more about the script of this movie. I want to take you a little behind…probably a year.

Sylvester Stallone, a struggling aspiring actor was facing absolute financial crisis. He already had sold his wife’s jewelry to make up for the food and shelter. Facing extreme low, he was unable to feed his dog, hence, sold it to a stranger outside a liquor ship in $25 (some websites say $50).

After being forced to sleep in the New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal for a few days, one night he saw the boxing fight between Mohammad Ali and Chuck Wepner on Television. Chuck Wepner, more of an unknown boxer, surprised everyone by stretching the fight to the 15th round. Even after receiving a fair amount of powerful punches from the Great Mohammad Ali, he carried on and made sure that it would turn out to be the best day of his life. Although he lost the fight, but, he kept his ground till the 15th round and proved everyone wrong by making a name for himself. This heroics of Chuck inspired Sylvester to rub the dirt off his writing skills to pen down the script of this famous movie. He wrote the script in almost three and a half days.

Terming the script as a promising one, a film production company offered him $125,000 to buy it. But, they were taken aback by Sylvester’s demand of portraying the role of Rocky, the main lead. Obviously, they didn’t agree to it because he was a “no one” at that time. They approached him multiple times with more money every time, up to $350,000 (some websites say $300,000), but, he was adamant in his demand. With a pregnant wife at home and just a few hundreds of dollars in his account, he was still not ready to give up on his dream of making big as an actor in the Hollywood. Finally, his persistence paid off and the production company agreed to cast him as the protagonist in the movie. They gave him $35,000 for the script. To play safe, it was made on quite a small budget and shoot in just 28 days. Whatever happens thereafter, it is a history…This movie was nominated in a record ten categories for the prestigious Oscar awards and won three of them, including the Best picture. Sylvester himself was also nominated for in the Best actor category. This movie is also registered in the United States National Film Registry as one of the greatest of all times.

After receiving the money, the first thing he did was to bring back his dog. There are stories that he waited for more than three days outside that liquor shop to meet that stranger again and paid around $15,000 to buy him back. Later on, that dog was featured in that movie also- remember the scene where rocky is running upstairs with a dog. Other family members- his father and brother also played minor roles in that movie to save money as the budget was comparatively low.

According to him, his “never say die” attitude is the main force behind all this grand success despite of so many adversities and setbacks.

Rocky is not based on me. It is not my life story. But, we both went distance to achieve our life goals- Sylvester Stallone

Today, Sylvester Stallone is one of the most recognizable faces of Hollywood with two famous movie series under his belt- Rocky and Rambo. A humble, down to earth actor and a passionate dog lover.

This is yet another story of human capabilities. Sylvester Stallone fight against all odds, including poverty, multiple rejections and somewhat a partial disability (paralyzed lower left face) to fulfill his dream of becoming a renowned actor and script writer.

No one in this world, except you, is aware of your capabilities. So, never ever let someone else tell you that you can’t do something. It really doesn’t matter how many times you have tried in the past without success, as long as you are still alive and ready to try one more time…you are just one step away from your dream. Don’t quit, nothing to hold you back. Go ahead, chase your dreams and make your own story of excellence.

Let us know about his troubled life before achieving stardom

Due to a forceps accident during labor, his lower left face got paralyzed, giving him his famous snarling look and slurred speech. Due to the troubled relationship between his parents, he had a difficult childhood. His parents got divorced when he was nine. He was not a bright student and scored poorly in academics. Poor grades, behavior problems and frequent fights- due to all these issues, he was admitted into a special school for troubled kids as well. For college education, he went to American college in Switzerland to study drama. After that, he studied dramatic arts at the University of Miami where he started to explore his passion for writing as well. He left his college in between and moved to New York to fulfill his dream of becoming an actor.

During his struggle to take off his acting career, he did various odd jobs to earn the livelihood- cleaning the lion’s cage at the zoo, ushering at a movie theater and even appearing in a soft core porn movie. Before getting the ultimate break in Rocky, he did small, uncredited roles in a handful of the less popular mainstream movies.

Life is not about how hard you can hit…but, it is all about how hard you can get hit and still keep moving- Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone as a Writer

Sylvester always had an interest in writing. When his acting career was not going well and he was getting a lot of rejections, he tilted his interest towards writing and wrote a few screenplays as well.

One day, walking through the streets of New York city, he wandered into a library to get some warmth. He browsed through a few books and found books from established writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Tolstoy. It inspired him to take his writing more passionately. Then after, it became a routine for him to visit the library for the rest of that winter season.