"AI is here to stay": Sylvester Stallone embraces the tech, delivers a bold warning
Sylvester Stallone lobbed a bold take into the AI conversation, the kind of line-in-the-sand remark that could have fans choosing sides.
On a recent episode of The Overlap podcast, Sylvester Stallone didn’t hedge about where he stands on AI in filmmaking, calling it less a trend than a force that’s already arrived. He framed the technology as something the industry has to learn to live with, even if it ruffles feathers.
“It’s an avalanche. It’s just out of our control. If you don’t go with it, you will be trampled by it.”
Stallone said he’s willing to use AI in his own projects, despite knowing the backlash that can follow. He acknowledged the critics head-on and still argued that taking the leap is worth it.
“I would take that risk, even though you get blasted bombastically from the creative community. And their [complaints are] right!”
His comments come after he floated a movie idea centered on a half-human, half-AI character — a pitch he said drew fire from peers. He’s also talked about using AI to play a younger version of himself as Rambo, and warned that the technology could make it tougher for actors to build careers; he’s even told his daughter Scarlet Rose Stallone, who’s acting, to explore other avenues alongside it.
- AI isn’t optional, Stallone says — it’s “an avalanche.”
- He’s open to deploying it in films, including de-aging himself as Rambo.
- He accepts artists’ concerns, but believes resisting it outright is a losing game.
- He’s urged his actress daughter, Scarlet, to diversify her plans.
Open about the rest, too
In a separate conversation at New York’s 92nd Street Y with journalist Tracy Smith, Stallone also got candid about the pressures of physique in Hollywood and his past use of performance-enhancing steroids when chasing comic-book-level bodies on screen.
“Guys … you really think these guys are natural? If you’re trying to play a sort of superhero or a person that is above and beyond a normal guy, you can’t do it. It’s almost like putting on part of a costume.”
He said he stopped after his wife raised red flags that led to medical tests — checkups he credits with ultimately saving his life. And while he’s been frank about that chapter, his eye remains on what’s next: how to fold AI into the kind of big-screen storytelling he’s built a career on — up to and including a digitally younger Rambo.