Sylvester Stallone says he turned down an offer of up to $360,000 for his Rocky screenplay because the producers wanted another actor in the lead. Speaking with Tracy Smith on CBS Sunday Morning on September 27, he described the jobs, setbacks and money problems he faced before the 1976 film changed his career.
He would not sell Rocky without playing him
Stallone wrote the role for himself. In the interview, he said the producers increased their offer for the script but still wanted someone else as Rocky Balboa. He was short of money, yet refused to separate the story from the part he had written for himself. His answer was short:
“I said, pass. I can’t do it.” — Sylvester Stallone
The decision matters because Rocky was not a guaranteed hit when he was making it. Stallone said he had slept in rough places in New York, cleaned lion cages at the Central Park Zoo and even sold his dog because he could not afford to feed him. He later bought the dog back and put him in the film. The CBS conversation returns to those details as the movie reaches its 50th anniversary.
A new book and a movie about making Rocky
Stallone’s memoir The Steps is due September 29. It covers the years before and after his break with Rocky. A separate film, I Play Rocky, dramatizes the fight to get the first movie made. Stallone told CBS he was not involved in making that film but thought it captured his story well. The film is scheduled to open in theaters on November 19.
The interview also touches on how Stallone rebuilt his career after a slower period in the 1990s. He returned to writing and made Rocky Balboa in 2006. The actor is still working on screen: he stars as Dwight Manfredi in Paramount+’s Tulsa King, which CBS says returns for a fourth season in October.
Stallone’s new comments put the casting decision in personal terms. He was not just trying to sell a script; he wanted his first real chance to lead a film. That is the part of the story I Play Rocky will revisit later this year. For now, the CBS interview offers Stallone’s own account of what he was offered and why he refused it.
The CBS Sunday Morning profile aired September 27. The related Pixel Twelve page for I Play Rocky has the film details, while the Tulsa King page covers the series. Neither the memoir nor the upcoming biographical film is necessary to understand his central point: Stallone chose the role over a large script payment.
