'I Play Rocky' biopic gets Sylvester Stallone's 'I'm Not Dead Yet' quip
Sylvester Stallone doesn’t hold back on I Play Rocky revisiting his iconic career — and his blunt reaction has fans cracking up.
When Sylvester Stallone finally watched a clip of actor Anthony Ippolito playing him, he did a double take. From a couple of angles, the younger performer’s stance and voice were so dead-on that Stallone briefly thought he was looking at old footage of himself.
“Then I saw this video of this kid [Ippolito]. I actually thought it was me the first moment.”
He also admitted the whole idea of a biopic while he’s still around felt a little premature. Speaking onstage at 92NY, Stallone said he had mixed feelings about seeing someone else live out his origin story.
“Kind of mixed because I’m going, ‘I’m not dead yet. Aren’t we jumping the g** a little bit?’”
Stallone stressed he wasn’t involved with the production of I Play Rocky beyond telling Ippolito he was welcome to call with questions. Watching the impersonation, he joked, finally made him understand how he actually sounds to other people.
The film at a glance
- Director — Peter Farrelly
- Stallone — Anthony Ippolito plays a young Sylvester Stallone
- Story — the turbulent making of 1976’s Rocky
The missed bell on Rocky
In a separate interview with The New York Times tied to his memoir, The Steps, Stallone shared a messier memory from the original set: he cast his father as the ringside timekeeper for the climactic fight. The bell didn’t ring on cue, and the carefully choreographed bout lost its rhythm as Rocky Balboa kept throwing punches.
Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed, was left wondering why the action kept going when the bell should have sounded after four counts. Stallone said the slip led to an altercation off camera and reflected a father-son relationship he’s described as strained; they warmed somewhat before Frank Stallone Sr. died in 2011.
I Play Rocky premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month.