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Sylvester Stallone Shares Childhood Traumas and Hollywood Struggles
Confirmed
In Short: Sylvester Stallone has shared harrowing details about his childhood in a new interview with Fox News Digital. He described a life marked by abandonment, violence, and a lack of affection from both parents.
Stallone recalled being sent to live in a boarding house at a young age, where his parents visited only once a month. He also detailed a rare moment of tenderness from his father, who placed his head on his knee and rested his hand on it when Stallone was about nine years old.
Stallone has five children from two marriages and has built one of Hollywood's most recognizable careers. He recently opened up about his fitness journey, acknowledging that it came at a 'terrible price.
In a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Anthony Ippolito, who stars as a young Sylvester Stallone in the biopic 'I Play Rocky,' revealed that he and Stallone had spoken extensively about the actor's early life and the challenges he faced.
Stallone wrote the screenplay for 'I Play Rocky' and insisted on playing the lead character. The film explores Stallone's early struggles, including paralysis of the left side of his face after a botched medical procedure.
Stallone has also spoken about his hesitations regarding his role as a special ambassador to Hollywood under President Donald Trump. He said he would have declined the position if it had been offered directly to him.
Despite his reservations, Stallone has praised Trump in the past, describing him as a 'mythical character' during a 2024 election celebration at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
What this adds
Stallone's revelations about his childhood and fitness journey provide new insights into his personal life and the challenges he faced early in his career.
What's confirmed
- Stallone recalled being sent to live in a boarding house at a young age, where his parents visited only once a month. He also detailed a rare moment of tenderness from his father, who placed his head on his knee and rested his hand on it when Stallone was about nine years old.
- Stallone has five children from two marriages and has built one of Hollywood's most recognizable careers. He recently opened up about his fitness journey, acknowledging that it came at a 'terrible price.
- In a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Anthony Ippolito, who stars as a young Sylvester Stallone in the biopic 'I Play Rocky,' revealed that he and Stallone had spoken extensively about the actor's early life and the challenges he faced.
- Stallone wrote the screenplay for 'I Play Rocky' and insisted on playing the lead character. The film explores Stallone's early struggles, including paralysis of the left side of his face after a botched medical procedure.
- Stallone has also spoken about his hesitations regarding his role as a special ambassador to Hollywood under President Donald Trump. He said he would have declined the position if it had been offered directly to him.
- Despite his reservations, Stallone has praised Trump in the past, describing him as a 'mythical character' during a 2024 election celebration at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
What's still developing
- Sylvester Stallone told Fox News Digital he is still happy with his choice to permanently relocate to Florida from Hollywood last year.
- Sylvester Stallone poses with wife Jennifer Flavin and their daughters. The Hollywood star has said fatherhood helped reshape his view of family. (Art Streiber/Paramount+.) Stallone went on to build one of Hollywood's most recognizable careers, writing and starring as Rocky Balboa and going on to play John Rambo. The original "Rocky" received 10 Oscar nominations and won three Academy Awards, including best picture. Off-screen, Stallone has five children from two of his three marriages. Stallone married his first wife, Sasha Czack, in 1974. They divorced in 1985 and shared two sons, Sage and Seargeoh. Stallone married "Rocky IV" co-star Brigitte Nielsen later in 1985, and the couple divorced in 1987.
- The action star opened up about a childhood marked by abandonment, violence and an almost total absence of affection in a new interview, telling The New York Times that he deliberately left some of the darkest stories out of his book because he didn't want readers to feel sorry for him.
- After his parent’s divorce, Stallone spent time living with his father in Maryland.
- He described his father as volatile and physically abusive.
- Stallone additionally recalled that his mother never showed affection towards him.
- Sylvester Stallone is getting candid about the pressures of fame.
- “I started to think: Design your body like a jaguar, a cat. Not big like Arnold [ Schwarzenegger ], but more feral and aggressive and very limber and athletic,” Stallone told The New York Times in an interview published Sept. 26.
- “I don’t care what they say,” Stallone explained.
- “It wasn’t until I did Cop Land, when I had to play the weakest guy in the room—partially deaf, overweight—that I felt somewhat liberated,” Stallone said of the 1997 crime drama.
- Sylvester Stallone opened up about his “obsession” with his physique early on in his career, sharing that he “became bulimic” and used steroids to achieve his fitness goals.
- “Everything is held together with baling wire,” he shared, “but I still want to stay in good shape.” However, that doesn’t mean Stallone wouldn’t approach his fitness goals differently if given the opportunity to go back in time, describing his past behavior as “very masochistic.” “It’s come at a terrible price,” he admitted.