Stallone's Body Image Struggle
Sylvester Stallone has opened up about the darker side of stardom, disclosing a turbulent and enduring struggle with his own physique that started when he reshaped his body for the title role in Rocky. Speaking recently with The New York Times, he traced how that bond with his body shifted across his career. He called his build his armor, explaining that Rocky looked smooth and unremarkable, but he sensed the character would grow vainer. For Rambo, he pictured a fighter as more beast-like and less polished, so he imagined his physique as a jaguar or cat—smaller than Arnold Schwarzenegger, yet wilder, fiercer, more flexible, and athletic.[S1]
Stallone admitted that this approach turned into an obsession. He said it reached a point where he became bulimic, dropping to 2.6 percent body fat while working on Rocky III. He explained that he could not keep food down, or did not want to, because he was fixated on maintaining that level of fitness, which he described as an obsessive body-worship kind of thing. He also acknowledged that steroids played a role, stating that nobody achieves such results without additives and drugs. He said he used them in a sensitive way, cycling six weeks on and six weeks off, but noted that this also took a terrible toll.[S1]
Liberation and Regrets
Taking the part of the least physically imposing man in the room for Cop Land—a character who was partly deaf and carried extra weight—gave the actor a feeling of release. He called that experience somewhat freeing, even as he conceded he had mistreated his body. These days Stallone no longer regards his physique as armor, but he said the self-punishing habits he once followed exacted a dreadful cost. Looking back, he said that given another chance he would tell himself to let another person carry the banner and skip performing his own stunts. His upcoming memoir, The Steps, arrives Sept. 29.[S1]
