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Stick to Football · 3 min · Oct 22, 2026

Stallone revived Rocky at 60 after studios turned him down

After a difficult period, Sylvester Stallone wrote Rocky Balboa as a story about grief and tried to get it made. His agency dropped him, but he kept pushing despite the long gap and Rocky V’s failure.

SS

Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone is an actor, screenwriter and author.

About this segment

After a difficult period, Sylvester Stallone wrote Rocky Balboa as a story about grief and tried to get it made. His agency dropped him, but he kept pushing despite the long gap and Rocky V’s failure.

From “Stallone: Rocky Secrets, Rambo Stories & Schwarzenegger Rivalry | Stick to Football EP 154”, Oct 22, 2026. Watch the full episode

Takeaways Pro pick

  1. He framed the new film around loss after middle age.
  2. Studios rejected a story about a 60-year-old boxer.
  3. He was fired by his agency before the film was made.

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 31:42Stallone designed Rocky around the flaws that held him back6:29
  2. 26:18Rocky’s fights borrowed their movement from real boxingPro pick 4:08

  3. 1:04:15Stallone revived Rocky at 60 after studios turned him downPro pick 3:16

  4. One more moment in the full episode
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Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 1:04:21

    Well, it was probably when it really hit the worst was the 90s and like the second divorce that whole terrible tawdry time that's when I felt like every doll wheels came off whatever mystique or dignity that you had or people had goodwill toward you gone for sure so then you start to rebuild and how you rebuild you do another Rockies I'm serious that kind of character the The hardest film I've ever had to do, Rocky V, was a box office disaster, and my career starts to go down, which all careers, peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys, so it's really in the valley.

  2. 1:05:11

    And I thought, you know, I'm sitting at home, my children have never seen me act, they think I'm a bad golfer. That's my life. And I said, I got to go one more time to the well and deal with something, again, not boxing, Rocky Balboa, and the stories about grief. Because up to 40, 45 years old, it's all acquisition. It's plus. From 50 on, everything's lost. People get older, people move away, people die, it's a disease.

  3. 1:05:42

    It's not fun, you know? And I wanted to do something about that. And again, boxing was the metaphor where I don't know how to get rid of this pain except to feel physical. It's like self-flagellation. I need to get hurt. I don't want to thank anyone. So I write the screenplay. And the studios, this is why to me it's my crowning moment. Nobody wants to make it. They would say to me, it's like, it's 16 years later, Rocky, Dunn, and Soryu.

  4. 1:06:20

    So I get fired by my agency. They said, we can't do anything for you anymore. 16 years between manager, no. And I go, wow, I'm back where I started. And I'm like 60 years old. I said, you know, I want to write about this. Bring out the pen. And to get that movie made about a 60-year-old boxer, good luck. That's like doing a film about a 200-year-old stripper. It's just not commercial. Can you do that next for us?

  5. 1:06:56

    Oh, my God. So when that happened, that is a miracle. As much as Rocky I was a miracle, a 60-year-old fighter following Rocky V which was a disaster 16 years later between movies that's why I think that character is something different yeah it's not like Rambo yes no it's just the opposite and I think a good friend of mine was in that Tony