From the New York Times:
The Interview
Sylvester Stallone Hid His Struggles for Decades. Now He’s Coming Clean.
By Lulu Garcia-Navarro
Sept. 26, 2026
Sylvester Stallone has loomed large in our popular imagination for 50 years, ever since he exploded onto the screen playing the iconic underdog boxer Rocky Balboa in a film he wrote and that won the best picture Oscar. Many more “Rocky” films came after that, and also another franchise, “Rambo,” which heralded a new era of action movies in which Stallone and his one-time nemesis Arnold Schwarzenegger modeled a very specific type of masculinity: physically imposing, morally unambiguous and emotionally aloof.
Now 80, and with a new memoir, titled “The Steps” (a nod to the Philadelphia Museum of Art stairs he famously scaled in “Rocky”), Stallone is ready to examine his own life, his work and the impact it has had on our culture. …
Here’s a part of the interview that hundreds of movie stars could say about their upbringings:
Q. Your parents had this very hostile and violent marriage, and they divorced when you were about 11 years old. What do you remember about that separation?
Stallone: It was traumatic.
Somebody should take a Top 100 list of movie stars and count how many had their parents divorce. I’d guess that that’s a distinctive difference between famous actors and average people of similar backgrounds.
I could imagine reasons both of nature — the parents of stars also tend to be sexy and thus cheat more on their spouses on average — and nurture. If they ask you at the audition to reach deep inside yourself and pull up the emotions you felt when your parents told you they were divorcing so you can show the camera how that felt, I’d be like, “Huh? That never happened to me. … How about when my dog died? Is that traumatic enough for you? Because that’s about all I’ve got from my quite happy childhood.” (Not surprisingly, my last time acting on stage was in 1970 in Oliver! as Oliver Twist’s grandfather, in which I successfully utilized my main performing talent: tallness.)
Other above average tendencies found in movie stars’ backgrounds besides being nepo babies: parents who are artists in other fields (e.g., both of Robert De Niro’s parents, soon to be divorced when De Niro Sr. decided he was gay, were modestly prominent painters in the Jackson Pollock era in Greenwich Village), bohemian upbringings (sometimes including a spell in a commune), and, probably (but less well-documented), some history of childhood sex abuse.
Stallone has lots of colorful stories about how awful his parents were, such as his mother using his fame to become a TV psychic and then going on the Howard Stern show and getting into a huge argument with Sly’s dad, her ex-husband. Stallone, himself, is a sensitive, bookish sort (yes), so his parents pained him greatly.
But here’s the part that interested me:
Q. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who you’re now friends with, was a huge action star back then, and you’ve said you couldn’t stand to be in the same room. Why did you hate him so much?
Stallone: Because he was a challenge. I thought I had something going on. Then I see this guy, this immovable force, a very confident human being, even more so than me, and more psychological in the way he would manipulate and do things very cunningly. Not in a negative way, but just shrewdly. I was a blunt force; he was Machiavellian cool. He’s winning these awards, and he’s a bodybuilder, and I consider myself somewhat more of a —— A thespian. A thespian, a peripatetic dramaturg just wandering the country acting. [Laughs] And I went, Wow, this is the guy I’m going to have trouble with. And sure enough, we did.
There’s a great story about how Schwarzenegger decided to dump his girlfriend Brigitte Nielsen of Red Sonja so he could marry Maria Shriver. But who could he fix her up with so she wouldn’t cause trouble for Maria and him? But then he gets a call that Sylvester Stallone wants to have dinner with him. So he asks if Brigitte can come. Brigitte is excited to meet Sly. Then Arnold doesn’t show up at the dinner, so … Sly gets to deal with Brigitte for the next few years while Arnold marries into the Kennedy-Shriver dynasty. (Which turned out to have its own set of problems, but that’s several more stories.)
We were just going at each other, which turned out to be fantastic. I’m regretful for some of the things I said about him, but he antagonized me in a creative way, and I did to him. It forced us to keep moving higher, and bigger guns, louder, more action, disemboweled bodies, everything, until we really carved out a niche that will never quite come around again, that ’80s over-the-top action genre that he and I pioneered.
It’s like a creative marriage, in a way. It’s like Ali and Frazier. You need that thing that brings you to the surface more than any other person. It’s not even hatred. It’s this guy, he won’t go away. I dream about him. I’m on his mind. He’s on my mind. It’s very rare. Eventually we end up working together in “The Expendables,” and I go on the campaign trail for him. Unbelievable.
Q. When was the moment that you two put this to rest? Did it just come with age and him moving into politics?
Stallone: Yeah. At first I thought, Come on, actors in politics? This is oil and water, because actors are very self-absorbed, and politicians, if they’re good, should be the opposite. But he was definitely sincere about it, and I don’t know why but he asked me to be at an event. And sure enough, then we hit it off. He’s one of a kind.
Q. I want to ask you about your body.
Stallone: Well, now you’re getting personal.
Q. At several points in your career you were exceptionally muscular, which wasn’t your build before “Rocky.” How has your relationship with your body changed over time?
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