Sylvester Stallone says he grew up with a violent father, a mother who never hugged him and parents who sent him away to a boarding house while he was still very young. The 80-year-old actor described those years in recent interviews with The New York Times and CBS News, published Sept. 26 and 27, as his memoir, "The Steps," heads to bookstores.
The book, published by William Morrow, is scheduled for release Sept. 29. Its title refers to the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps that Stallone's character, Rocky Balboa, climbs in the 1976 film that made him a star.
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| Sylvester Stallone, 80, has spoken in recent interviews about his childhood as his memoir "The Steps" is released Sept. 29. |
"I didn't want a pity party"
Stallone told the Times he left some of the worst stories out of the memoir on purpose. He said he did not want readers to feel sorry for him, though he called what he lived through "insane."
After his parents divorced, Stallone spent time living with his father in Maryland. He described his father as volatile and physically abusive, saying he learned to duck when his father swung at him.
One incident stuck with him. Stallone said his father sent him to a store to buy bread before church, and he came back with nut bread after running into friends along the way. His father, he said, kicked and hit him hard enough to knock him down, then got in the car and drove to church, leaving him in the street.
Decades later, when Stallone was in his 40s, he confronted his father. He said he told him he wished they could be the same age for a few minutes so his father could feel what it was like to be on the receiving end. According to Stallone, his father, then 68, responded by challenging him to a fight.
Stallone linked that intensity to his work. Asked where he finds the ferocity to play Rambo, he answered with one word: "Genetic."
A childhood without affection
Stallone said his mother never hugged him, adding that his brother would back him up on that. His father was rarely affectionate either, but Stallone recalled one exception. When he was about 9, he fell asleep in the car after helping with his father's horses, and his father rested Stallone's head on his knee and put a hand on his head. Stallone said he never got over that moment.
He told CBS News his parents did not know how to show affection, describing "zero touching" in the household. He also said he did not fully blame them for sending him to a boarding house, because he was a very rambunctious child.
In the Times interview, Stallone said his parents visited the boarding house only about once a month. He described being raised by strangers there and said that, compared with his home life, the arrangement felt like a bonus.
Asked whether the experience made him tough, he said it did, "in the wrong way." He told the Times that he did not feel what he considers real love until around age 70, when he felt it with his wife and children, and he called that a "big pity."
Birth complications and speech
The Times interview also touched on his birth. Stallone said his mother, who he felt was not ready for motherhood, went into labor on a bus in the ninth month of pregnancy and was taken to a charity ward. The interviewer noted that forceps used during delivery partially paralyzed his face. Stallone said that made him slur and mumble as a child, which he compared to Rocky's speech, only "10 times worse."
From struggling actor to Rocky
In the CBS News interview, Stallone talked about his early years in New York, where he was born in Hell's Kitchen. He said he once slept on pizza boxes and worked cleaning lion cages at the Central Park Zoo.
He wrote the "Rocky" script in about three and a half days and finished it in March 1975. Stallone credits some kind of divine guidance, saying he has never been able to write that way since. He was still broke, and he said he sold his dog because he could not afford to feed him.
According to Stallone and his memoir, producers offered him large sums for the script, with bidding reaching $360,000, but only if someone else played Rocky. He turned them down. The film went on to win three Academy Awards, including best picture, and Stallone later bought back his dog, Butkus, and put him in the movie.
Stallone's career cooled in the 1990s. He told CBS he felt "artistically dead" for about six years, and said writing brought him back. In 2006 he wrote and directed "Rocky Balboa," which the network described as a critical and box office success. CBS also noted that he has starred in at least one No. 1 box office film in each of the past six decades, a distinction it says only Harrison Ford shares.
Family life
Stallone has five children from two of his three marriages. He married Sasha Czack in 1974, and they divorced in 1985. They have two sons, Sage and Seargeoh. He married actress Brigitte Nielsen later in 1985, and they divorced in 1987.
He married Jennifer Flavin in 1997. The couple has three daughters: Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet. Stallone told CBS his wife has "kept me alive," and Fox News reported that he credits his family with giving him the stability he lacked growing up.
What's coming next
- "The Steps: A Memoir" goes on sale Sept. 29 in hardcover, large print paperback, eBook and audio formats.
- "I Play Rocky," a film about Stallone's fight to get "Rocky" made, opens in theaters Nov. 19. Stallone says he was not involved in it but thinks the filmmakers got it right.
- The fourth season of "Tulsa King" is set to arrive next month on Paramount+.
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