Pulling no punches: Sylvester Stallone gets personal in Netflix doc

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After his many appearances onscreen as Rocky and Rambo, you might think you know Sylvester Stallone. But a new career-spanning documentary from Thom Zimny (Springsteen on Broadway, Western Stars, Letter to You) is giving Sly’s fans a different perspective on the filmmaker’s 50-year career in Hollywood.

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Sly, now streaming on Netflix, finds Zimny sitting down with Stallone, 77, as he looks back on his unlikely rise as a film icon thanks to a star-making role as a past-his-prime boxer in Rocky nearly 50 years ago. In addition to candid conversations with Stallone, the film features insightful interviews from his Rocky co-star Talia Shire, brother Frank Stallone Jr., film rival Arnold Schwarzenegger, director Quentin Tarantino and more.

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Stallone famously fought to get Rocky made with him as the leading man. At one point, the studio offered him thousands of dollars to relinquish his script and let a more well-known actor star as the underground boxer trying to make a name for himself in Philadelphia.

But Stallone was determined to play the role. He wrote the part, he said, because he “wasn’t making it as an actor” and was destined for a life as a movie extra.

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“He’s an artist who has worked really hard at processing a tough childhood and built an amazing career, a family, but he still also has this ambition,” Zimny tells Postmedia of filming with Stallone. “He’s still similar to the days of him struggling to get Rocky sold. Like he’s not given up that fight. It’s an inspiration that so many people turn to, and it’s an inspiration that changed our understanding of heroes.”

“Rejection was my encouragement,” Stallone says in the film. “I’m in the hope business.”

From the moment he met Stallone, Zimny says he saw how a story about his life — his failures and successes — could paint a broader picture about continuous reinvention and resilience. “He gave me the greatest gift — which is raw, emotional honesty,” the Emmy and Grammy-winning filmmaker says.

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“I knew right away that I was in the space of something familiar where you unpack a little bit of your own journey by looking at the past,” Zimny continues. “Sly gives the viewer an honest portrayal of his life, but never leaves them in the dark where there’s no hope.”

As he interweaves footage from his conversations with Stallone with photos from his childhood and old press interviews, Zimny shows that the actor was constantly in flux. Challenging our notions of what an action hero could be and also what he was capable of delivering on the big screen.

“I was shocked how raw and emotional and honest Sly was in the interviews,” Zimny says. “If you listen to Sly in the room, and the film shows a lot of that, there are beautiful moments where he’s unpacking the idea of time passing and regret. The beauty of the things he’s created and the losses … a big part of directing is stepping back and letting it unfold. Every time we spoke, I walked away thinking, ‘I didn’t know that.’ Every time I talked to him, the film got bigger and more personal.”

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Important to Stallone was making a film that not only charted his cinematic life, but told a story that would resonate beyond his core fan base.

“We wanted something that could reflect a little bit of the underdog spirit,” Zimny said. “The spirit of Sly and his life shows his perseverance in trying to be an actor, trying to survive Hollywood, trying to tell a story. There’s a moment in the film after he’s had a lot of success where he wonders, ‘Is it time to pack up?’ And he again finds another outlet in which to express himself and that’s The Expendables. What I loved was, we weren’t doing a greatest hits film. We’ve got a journey.”

Zimny says that his work with Bruce Springsteen (he has directed seven documentaries spotlighting the Boss at different points of his career) had thematic ties to what viewers will experience with Sly.

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“He reflects a lot of that same journey,” Zimny says. “Things are going to grow, ideas are going to grow. Sly had that vision … the character of Rocky dealt with aging and loss. His life spilled into those works … as Sly was getting older, he took these characters with him and he made them develop in a certain way that reflected the questions he had … there’s no Born to Run 2, it’s just the next thing.”

After Schwarzenegger’s recent three-part Netflix docuseries Arnold peeled back the layers on some of the competition Stallone had with his ’80s action adversary, Sly delves more into their bitter rivalry.

“It’s interesting to listen to them speak about it now,” Zimny says. “They survived a journey of being the biggest icons of the ’80s. The beauty of the interview I got with Arnold was how much he admired Sly and how he could talk about that time differently now as a man in his 70s. It was great to have them both reflect back. But I also really loved how Arnold was able to see how Sly changed as a man.”

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But it’s a quote from Stallone about how he used rejection to fuel his dreams that Zimny hopes sticks with the viewer long after the end credits roll.

“Rejection can be a great motivating tool,” Zimny says. “Sly has had this amazing life. But he reflects the idea of a way to live a good life, and that’s to keep punching.”

Sly is now streaming on Netflix

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X: @markhdaniell

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