Stallone warms to 'I Play Rocky' biopic after early doubts

Sylvester Stallone has shared his mixed initial reaction to I Play Rocky, the biopic about the making of the 1976 classic Rocky, saying he questioned whether his life story was being revisited too soon.

Speaking at 92NY while promoting his new memoir The Steps, Stallone said he felt "kind of mixed" about the project, asking, "I'm not dead yet. Aren't we jumping the gun a little bit?"

The film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, follows the turbulent production of Rocky and stars Anthony Ippolito as a young Stallone.

Stallone said his view changed after watching Ippolito's performance. "I actually thought it was me the first moment; there were a couple of angles. I go to my daughter and say, 'That's unbelievable,'" he recalled.

He stressed that he was not involved in the production, which is directed by Peter Farrelly. "I said, 'I'll just sit back and watch.' I talked to the kid. I said, 'If you want any questions, here I am,' and that was it. But they did it all on their own," he said.

He also joked about seeing his mannerisms recreated on screen, saying, "I go, 'Do I talk like that?' Now I get it. Now I get it."

During the conversation, Stallone discussed his complicated feelings about watching the Rocky films today. "It's like you look at a photo of yourself, everyone else likes it, but you go [growl]," he said.

He revealed that he is trying to get Amazon to allow him to recut 1990's Rocky V, which he described as "a thorn in my side." "It bothers me to death because I know I took my foot off the gas," he said, adding that he should have directed the film himself and should have been more aware of not trying to be cool to the audience. If given the chance to recut it, he joked, "It's not going to be great. It'll be acceptable."

Asked by moderator Tracy Smith of CBS Sunday Morning whether he could reach the top of Hollywood if he were starting his career today, Stallone said the industry had changed significantly. "It's a whole different ideology out there… I don't think so. It's a whole different mindset," he said.

He argued that the cultural context surrounding older films made them difficult to reproduce today, citing The Godfather as an example. "For example, if you were going to make The Godfather today, try casting it. Impossible," he said, adding, "The whole premise it just came at a certain time, and that's why it makes it so unique." He added that remakes can overlook the social and cultural circumstances in which the original films were made.