Stallone, 80, Revisits Rocky's Long Shot in New Memoir 'Steps'

Fifty years after Sylvester Stallone gambled on a modest boxing story that Hollywood barely wanted, the Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker says he still sees himself in the character who embodied the outsider proving doubters wrong — even if he no longer claims the underdog label.

"It would be so disingenuous to say you're an underdog, 'as he said from his penthouse,'" Stallone said in a recent interview on a high floor of a luxury Manhattan hotel. "Yeah. Come on. I am a lucky dog."

Stallone, who turned 80 in July, remains one of the most commercially successful stars and filmmakers in Hollywood history, with franchises including "Rocky," "Rambo" and "The Expendables" generating billions of dollars. He continues to work, starring as mobster Dwight "The General" Manfredi in the Paramount+ series "Tulsa King."

His memoir, "Steps," was published Tuesday. It arrives less than two months before "I Play Rocky," a fictionalized and semi-authorized account of his early career directed by Peter Farrelly, reaches theatres with Anthony Ippolito in the lead role. Farrelly discussed the project with Stallone, who was otherwise not involved.

"Rocky," which won the best picture Oscar over contenders including "Taxi Driver" and "All the President's Men," has long drawn strength from its back story. Stallone's own path from the streets of Philadelphia to the Academy Awards stage mirrors his character's improbable rise.

In "Steps," he describes himself as a hard-luck case — an unplanned and unwanted child who faced discouragement through the production of "Rocky," fearing each day on set might be his last.

Stallone was in Manhattan to promote the book but spends much of his time at a Palm Beach, Florida estate he shares with his wife, Jennifer Flavin. Even when discussing his rare fortune, he speaks in a warm, rumbly, offhand manner that suggests he does not quite believe it.

Last year he was a Kennedy Center honoree, receiving the award from President Donald Trump, who had earlier named Stallone, Jon Voight and Mel Gibson his "ambassadors" from an otherwise liberal Hollywood. Stallone has called Trump "the second George Washington," but has contributed to both Republicans and Democrats and broken with conservatives by calling for stronger gun control laws. He also condemns war, describing it as sending people into a "meat grinder while the military complex is making zillions of dollars."

"I do believe that you have to defend yourself. But to go on the offensive?" he said, adding that he would prefer not to be known as a political figure. "I love the common architecture of trying to just survive. That's noble. To be a politician, that's a different animal."

Reflecting on the memoir, Stallone said he had long resisted writing about his life, which he described as an ambivalent roller-coaster ride. He said he wanted to explain how the 1976 film came together because its central character was an inspiration.

"It was very hard because I spent 50 years burying that stuff," he said. "And it's like you come across a lost city, and you start to become your own spiritual archaeologist, digging down. And it's not pretty."

He said insecurity has driven him, noting he rises at 5 a.m. to study dialogue even a month before "Tulsa King" production begins. He also recalled a turning point at 29, when, with nothing working, he sought spiritual help in his backyard — an experience he honours in "Rocky," whose first scene is set at a boxing club called "The Resurrection."

On the new film about his own story, Stallone expressed amazement. "How strange is this? A movie about me being in a movie," he said, praising Ippolito's performance and Farrelly's direction. "They usually do this when you're dead and gone."