'Rocky' star Sylvester Stallone reveals brutal Hollywood snub and how he clawed his way back to the top

Sylvester Stallone is getting candid about the struggles he experienced throughout his career.

In a recent interview with AARP, the 79-year-old actor discussed feeling like Hollywood had abandoned him, noting that "For almost a decade, I couldn’t find work."

"Nobody wanted me after 'Cop Land.' Even my agents," he told the outlet. "I was fired from CAA. My personal manager at the time let me go. He said, 'I can’t do anything for you. Nobody really wants you anymore.' And I go, 'How’d this happen?' I was told these studios feel as though you’re not what you were."

He recalled going to his former agent who was in charge of Universal Studios at the time, and telling him "please, I'll take anything," and hearing "I’ll try to help you, but it’s not up to me," in response.

Stallone recalled being unable to find work for almost a decade after "Cop Land" flopped at the box office. (Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

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Despite being told his "time has passed" and that his "genre is over," Stallone didn't give up. "I wanted to go back to 'Rocky,'" Stallone recalled, calling it his "safe place."

"But there I am, 60 years old, and the previous one, 'Rocky V,' was an abject failure, so the original producers didn’t want to do the sixth film, 'Rocky Balboa,'" he said. "They said, basically, 'Over our dead bodies.' Even my wife was going, 'I don’t know if it’s such a good idea.'"

A chance encounter with a film producer while on vacation in Mexico led to the making of the successful fifth film in the Rocky franchise, which put Stallone back on the map. He went on to write and star in two more "Rambo" films, "The Expendables" franchise and reprised the role of Rocky Balboa in the "Creed" films.

The first Rocky film helped launch his film career and earned him Oscar nominations for best original screenplay and best actor. When speaking about one of his more iconic characters, Rambo, Stallone said he can identify with him due to his difficult childhood.

The first Rocky movie led to two Academy Award nominations for Stallone. (Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

"I feel closer to Rambo than Rocky in many ways because he’s a scorned child," he explained. "He’s rejected by America, his parent. 'I did everything you wanted me to do, but I wasn’t good enough. And I came back and you want to bury me.' So I would fill Rambo with over-the-top violence."

He has previously spoken about his violent childhood, saying in his 2023 Netflix documentary, "Sly," that he "was raised by a very physical father" and that he "was no stranger to serious pain." He went on to explain that through his many experiences, his mindset "just became, ‘I’m not gonna break.’"

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During his interview with AARP, Stallone bluntly shared "My mother didn’t want me," calling her "a narcissist with a borderline personality disorder" who hated affection and never gave any.

"She never hugged me, my brother—forget a kiss," he said. "My father certainly was not prepared to be a father. They really didn’t want children, and they had them and thought, So how do we get rid of them?"

Stallone has opened up about his challenging childhood. (Elisabetta Villa)

Stallone also discussed his complicated relationship with his parents during an episode of Sean Hannity's Fox Nation series, "Sean."

"Today, people would have been arrested, but in one part... I have the ability to channel that," Stallone said. "And that's why I think I'm successful, because I understand rejection. I understand hardship, I understand fear, and if my father couldn't break me, nobody was going to break me... I know what it's like to live on the dark side."

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The "Samaritan" star described himself as "disruptive," but found a passion for art and later "got into acting by accident." Despite the stage being somewhere he felt comfortable, getting casting directors to hire him proved to be difficult.

Stallone came to the conclusion that "acting is 97 percent guaranteed unemployment" and came to the realization that he "was never going to make it as an actor," unless he was content just playing "the second goon." It was at this point that he "decided to learn about writing."

Stallone turned to writing after he realized he wouldn't make it as an actor. (Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

"I was terrible. I mean, I still, today, don’t know what a pronoun is. I’m just still working on a verb. It’s an action word, right? Because it doesn’t matter in screenwriting," he told AARP. "When you’re writing dialogue, the way you speak is as personal as your fingerprints. I just had that ear. So my point is, I knew I was going to be a thug, and then an older thug, and then an unemployable thug. But maybe, instead, I could write a story about a thug who is not a thug. He’s really quite a broken man, kind, and just realizes he’s a failure."

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When speaking about the enduring success of the Rocky franchise, Stallone told Fox News Digital in December 2023, he believes the film resonates because everyone can relate to it.

"There are certain conundrums, issues, problems, journeys, challenges that everybody from every country, every culture has to face," he said. "And they may be somewhat different, but they usually deal with the same kind of — I just want to achieve something, I want people to be proud of me, I want to raise a family, I want to support my daughter. It’s this kind of fear — or [thinking] I’m really nobody inside. People look at me but, on the inside, I feel weak and shallow, that’s what the character was."

The actor currently stars in the Paramount + series, "Tulsa King," and also appears in the reality show, "The Family Stallone," alongside his wife, Jennifer Flavin and his daughters, Sophia, 29, Sistine, 27, and Scarlet, 23.

Stallone stars in "The Tulsa King" and "The Family Stallone." (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Paramount+)

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