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ROCKY'S
BACK IN THE RING AT 60
By
Sandro Monetti
The
Express on Sunday (London)
September
4, 2005
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Sylvester
Stallone will soon be turning 60 but instead of the bus
pass, he'll be reaching for the bandana and the boxing
gloves. For Sly will be spending next year filming new Rambo
and Rocky movies. Still fighting fit at the age of
59, Stallone tells the Sunday Express that he's not too old
to return to his most famous action roles.
"Age is this insidious weasel that creeps up on you out
of nowhere but I'm still in my prime and I look after
myself. In fact, I've never felt better about my body and my
health. I can do 75 press-ups without suffering a
hernia!"
Stallone shares his fitness secrets in a new book, Sly
Moves, and he is looking forward to showing off that
musclebound body again in his forthcoming movies.
"Everyone over the age of 45 is going to be hit with
the same dilemma, " he says. "Are we going to give
in to the advancing years and crumble, or are we going to
beat them? Then as we enter our 60s and beyond, we might ask
- could we be fitter and healthier than we were five years
ago?
"The answer is yes - if you want it enough. My whole
career has been about defeating pessimism and going after my
ambitions - just like Rocky."
The Italian Stallion will defy the odds once again in the
new film. In Stallone's script, Rocky Balboa runs a
restaurant but misses the buzz of boxing. He decides to make
a comeback in a hugely hyped pay-per-view fight against the
current heavyweight champ.
Everyone sees his decision as a joke or another
over-the-hill fighter's attempt at one last pay day but the
oldest slugger in town is determined to give his all and
take one last shot at glory.
The five Rocky films to date - screening on Sky
Cinema from September 18 - are Stallone's defining cinematic
legacy but he knew that there was still a public appetite to
see more of Rocky when he appeared before a sell-out crowd
to perform the opening ceremony for the new American
Football stadium in Rocky's home town, Philadelphia.
"There were 70,000 cheering fans there and they
suddenly broke into a chant of 'Ro-cky! Ro-cky! Ro-cky!'
"Rocky VI has now got the green light, which I'm
thrilled about. The movie is about skepticism. You reach a
certain age and people say you are past your prime - but who
decides what your prime is? What other people see as a joke
and a publicity stunt, Rocky sees as an opportunity to make
a statement."
Before he steps back in the ring as Rocky, Sly is set to
star in another low-budget but hotly anticipated movie
featuring his other hugely popular character, killing
machine John Rambo.
Sly has written the script of this movie as well, and he
explains that Rambo IV will be about a threat to the
Vietnam veteran's family rather than a return to the
battlefield. "In this one he is a widower and has a
nine-year-old daughter who is the most important thing in
his world. When she gets threatened by thugs, the rage that
has been buried inside him for years comes to the surface
again. It's much more similar to the original 1982 Rambo
film, First Blood, than the other two. Think Deliverance
and Straw Dogs as well - it has elements of those
films.
"I decided make this one a domestic story. I think
being militaristic would be irresponsible at this time when
there's real bloodletting going on in the world."
The Iraq War, and politics in general, are one of the few
topics on which Stallone won't give his opinion.
However, he shares a birthday with George W. Bush, is said
to share many of his beliefs, and is known to be such a
supporter of the President that he attended his first
inauguration ceremony.
Sly is happy, though, to talk about his marriage to gorgeous
model Jennifer Flavin, 37. His first two marriages, to Sasha
Czak and Brigitte Nielsen, ended in divorce but he and
Jennifer are still going strong after eight years of wedded
bliss.
"I'm a much better husband now than I was before.
There's no comparison. If I'm honest, most of the characters
I played were better than the real me but finally I have a
great woman who has provided me with great children. As the
career slowed down in recent years I could assess what was
really important. It's been fantastic. Now I really do put
family first, which I never did before. Jennifer and I are
happy. What I've learned that is a 24-carat fact is that a
happy wife means a happy life.
My career's really heating up again and I'm getting some
terrific offers, but it's my wife and children who are the
greatest gift."
He is determined to make those children - nine-year-old
Sophia, seven-year-old Sistine and Scarlet, three - fit and
healthy, just like him.
"I make my daughters work out. I want them to get good
habits. I get them up early and have them exercise before
breakfast. I have them do 15 pushups, they swing my golf
clubs around their heads, punch my hands. Stallone's
daughters will be quite different."
Even though his daughters are still years away from dating
age, Sly is already dreading the years when boys come
calling for them.
"I'm a happy and proud father but I know I'm going to
be a bad, irrational and emotional dad as soon as they start
dating. Luckily, with me playing Rambo again, I have the old
headband, machine gun and bow and arrow ready to go if any
boys want to give me trouble!"
A consequence of his increasing happiness at home is that
Stallone has again taken up his old hobby of oil painting.
"I've just started up again and I'm enjoying it. The
best painting comes around when you're going through a
serious mood upheaval.
It's all peaks and valleys, though, and I think your best
work is always when you're in the valley.
At peak times like now it's all birds and trees and bumble
bees but I have an old painting of mine that's so depressing
I keep it in the closet. It was done at a time when I was
going through a big transition in my personal life, when I
hadn't married Jennifer yet and was feeling real self
pity."
Other projects he has been passionate about lately include
his new lifestyle magazine, Sly, his recent reality TV
boxing series The Contender - seen here on ITV2 - and
forming his own nutrition company, Instone, which produces
Sly's Protein Puddings as well as protein shakes.
"They're the best products on the market, "
insists showman Sly, who, as if to prove the point,
disappears for a few minutes moments later to go and eat one
of his own vanilla protein puddings.
With two intensely physically demanding movies to prepare
for, Sly knows he can't afford any slip-ups in his diet and
exercise routine, but he admits: "The temptation to
just not be bothered and let myself go is there all the
time. Just yesterday, for example, I had so much ice-cream I
nearly got hypothermia - but the key is to kick back and eat
less the next day, so you balance it all out."
He doesn't follow the same fitness routine as Rocky - who
started each day by downing raw eggs.
"People still ask about that scene with the eggs. I
actually got sick with salmonella when I tried it, so don't
believe everything you see in the movies."
When he wrote Rocky back in 1975, Stallone was dirt
poor. He had only 65 Pounds to his name, no car, no
prospects and even had to sell his dog, Butkus, to make ends
meet. He bought the dog back after selling the script and
gave him a part in the movie.
It's been 30 years of high-profile hits and hype ever since.
Now, as he prepares for his 60th, Sly is still aiming for
the stars.
"When you're 20, age 60 seems like another galaxy. Next
thing you know, it's here. But you should never let anyone
tell you you're old for anything. Whenever the bell rings,
just take your best shot."
THE STALLONE FILE
Michael Sylvester Stallone was born July 6, 1946 in New
York's infamous Hell's Kitchen.
His father Frank was a hairdresser and mother Jacqueline is
a larger-than-life eccentric who has also sought fame as an
astrologer and women's wrestling promoter. Her maiden name
is Labofish.
Birth complications, caused by forceps, resulted in
paralysis of the lower left side of his face, manifested by
a perennial snarl and slurred speech.
He claims: "I'm not handsome in the classical sense.
The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't
straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pall-bearer, but
somehow it all works."
He was kicked out of 14 schools in 11 years.
At 15, he was voted the one "most likely to end up in
the electric chair" by his classmates.
Stallone took jobs as a gym teacher, lion cage cleaner and
porn actor before breaking into the big time as underdog
boxer Rocky (1976).
As of 2004, he is all-time Razzie Award -
"raspberry" - champion, with a record 30
nominations and 10 "wins" for awful films.
Of art he once said: "The only happy artist is a dead
artist because only then you can't change.
After I die, I'll probably come back as a paintbrush." |
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