An evening with Stallone

Fantastic interview with sylvester stallone, Manchester MEN. This is a great insight as to why he is coming to the UK to do another evening with, and talks about his new film the Expendables 3.

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Date published: 10th Jul 2014

Action man Stallone shows his vulnerable side

International action hero Sylvester Stallone is still looking for new challenges. His latest lets his fans interrogate him live on stage

Sylvester Stallone

When Sylvester Stallone reveals his acting break - scored on a whim, after spotting an open auditions poster in the hall at college - was in Arthur Miller?s harshly critical analysis of the American Dream, Death Of A Salesman, it seems incredibly apt.

The international action hero has become the very personification of the aspirations enshrined in the US constitution - to rise from the bottom and sit at the top table. He was born in the tough New York district of Hell?s Kitchen, but Sly has been one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood for close to four decades.

And, without that impromptu audition, things could have been very different. ?I was never the centre of attention, per se, but I was audacious and disruptive, unfortunately,? recalls Sly about his early years. ?Especially in class; I was a jokester, the class clown.

?I, at times, have been put in the corner with a dunce cap. A dunce cap, for real. Can you imagine? No question, I was in the corner so much. So I just knew that I didn?t fit in in the normal way.

?When I went to school and college I never thought I was going to do anything I was learning, I was planning to breed horses. I got the part and all of a sudden the horse idea went out the window.

?It gives you an idea of how serendipitous my life is.?

Everyone in Hollywood would agree that Sly is a man who had made his own luck. He famously hung on for a deal to make the film he wrote and planned to star in, Rocky, until he was so poor he had to sell his dog (following the movie?s success, he bought it back for $1,400).

?To this day it mystifies me; the intelligent part of me should have said, ?Sell the movie, you have no money, you?re starting to eat your clothes?,? he laughs in a way only hindsight allows. ?But there?s a part inside of you that hangs on.?

He has been allowed the last laugh on that one many times since, of course, and his position as Hollywood?s premiere superman scored him roles in Rambo, Cobra, Tango & Cash, Demolition Man, Judge Dredd, and latterly as Barney Ross in The Expendables, leader of a gang of elite mercenaries deployed on dangerous international hostage rescue missions.

Sylvester Stallone

The latest of these, Expendables 3 released nationwide on August 14, pairs Sly up with the action hero team to end all action hero teams: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson and Wesley Snipes among them. ?I got the idea that, no matter what, everything fades, you?re only hot once and then your career arcs,? says Sly about the movie series.

?So when we get to the crest of our careers and I see we?re now beginning to be cast as people?s uncles and grandfathers or the crotchety neighbour, I thought, ?Hmm, how do we salvage this??. I would see these band revival concerts where older bands would get together, so instead of just one, like Deep Purple, there would be 15 groups.

?I thought what if I were to try that? What if I could get 10 action guys who at one time had their own bright star, put them together, it may create some sort of curiosity interest - ?I gotta see that!?.?

He had no idea of the first film?s potential (?it?s kinda like getting dressed for a big event in a dark closet?), but a fourth is already being cast. And sequels, says Sly, have played such a big part in his film repertoire because he learnt how to tell stories from television, where ?they could do it for 10 years and nobody seems to get upset by it?, and from his passion for tales of great heroism.

?I thought if television can do that, why can?t I? I was chastised for it, believe me, people thought it was very low brow. They were like, ?What a bottom feeder?.

?Back then there wasn?t as much media and I became very influenced, believe it or not, by the Hercules movies. That had such an imprint on me, it literally changed my life. I was a very scrawny kid, I didn?t have a close relationship with my father, I was very, very insecure. and all of a sudden - bang, I saw a release, a father image.?

Sylvester Stallone

It?s refreshing to hear Sly unafraid to be so vulnerable on record, particularly because he?s booked in for a special event at the Phones 4u Arena next month, An Evening With Sylvester Stallone, in which he?ll talk about his life and career with Hollywood journalist Sandro Monetti and take unvetted audience questions.

He?s prepared for the fact they?re not always nice. ?They?ll say, ?You were born a cripple and you had this horrible voice and crooked mouth - how did you make it??. And I go, ?I wasn?t born cripple. I was born with a paralysed mouth on one side of my face?, and I know they aren?t being cruel but it is basically like asking, ?How can a creature like you be successful??.

?The main thing people want to know is what is the secret and, boy... Everybody has a different idea of what is success, what is love, what is luck? But it?s just an unbelievable perfect storm of everything coming together and then either ignorance - blissful ignorance, or incredible blind faith - keeps you hanging on.

?Then there?s a point sometimes where disillusionment comes in to the picture and you have to be really honest with yourself and look in the mirror and see what?s looking back at you: it?s not Brad Pitt or George Clooney ... it?s not Einstein,? he laughs.

?Of course no subject is off limits and if you?re going to accept that gig I don?t want to give a speech, I want to have an interaction. I?ve had a very dramatic life and I started off with an incredibly undramatic life, and I have proved that it?s a possibility for anyone to actually change the course of their life.?

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