Paramount+ is in the midst of airing the third season of “Tulsa King” and recently the show’s star sat down with GQ to discuss his career and look back at some of his most iconic roles.
For Stallone, arguably his most famous role is that of Rocky Balboa, the actor having played the role all the way from 1976’s original “Rocky” through five direct sequels and two “Creed” spin-off films.
The actor didn’t appear in “Creed III,” meaning 2018’s “Creed II” was the final screen appearance with the character seen reuniting with his estranged son Robert Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia) and meeting his grandson Logan for the first time.
However, Stallone says director Ryan Coogler was “very persistent” about ending the Rocky character’s journey with a death back during the making of 2015’s “Creed”. Stallone resisted that, ultimately helping shape what we saw on screen:
“I was never comfortable. I dodged that bullet for two years, three years, and Ryan Coogler kept pushing it…. But I didn’t want to do it because the way he had written it, Rocky dies. He gets Lou Gehrig’s disease. And I said, I have a big thing about characters like that dying. I’d much rather them get on a train going somewhere, and you never see them again. But to die, it will just bum the audience out completely.”
Stallone stood firm to that, leading to script re-writes which allowed him to explore a more grounded and richer version of the character: “It was a lot of dramatic acting in that because I couldn’t use my body. I wasn’t fighting. So that was a good challenge, and it turned out pretty well.”
Production is currently underway on “I Play Rocky” which is about the making of the first “Rocky” with Stallone producing.
In the same interview, Stallone also says that a regret he has is that three of his movies – “Cobra,” “Tango & Cash” and “Demolition Man” – were films he could easily have seen becoming franchises with at least three films in each.
