Not many struggling screenwriters would turn down $360,000. It’s a huge sum of money even now, but 50 years ago? That amount would have been worth over $2 million today.
And yet that’s exactly what Sylvester Stallone did. The struggling actor had just a few credits to his name — mostly extra roles on some TV shows, as well as a part in the coming-of-age comedy film The Lords of Flatbush, with future Fonz Henry Winkler. He was a complete unknown, almost 30 years old; his wife was pregnant, and they had about $100 in the bank. He was no one a major studio would take a chance on, and in his position, he didn’t have much bargaining power.
What Stallone did have, though, was a killer script about a young, impoverished boxer who gets an incredible break when he is given the opportunity to take on the world heavyweight champ, and then exceeds everyone’s expectations. As Stallone told The New York Times in 1976, he knew exactly what he wanted to say: “Let’s talk about stifled ambition and broken dreams and people who sit on the curb looking at their dreams go down the drain.”
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Stallone had written a first draft in just three days and then devoted himself to polishing it. He was proud of it, but when he showed it to his wife, Sasha, she had one comment: She liked the writing, but she didn’t like the man. The Rocky character was mean, not someone she wanted to root for. Stallone went back again, and suddenly a lovable, relatable underdog emerged, a character audiences could cheer on as he pursued his dream.
Producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff knew the script was gold, and they wanted a big name —Burt Reynolds, Robert Redford, Ryan O’Neal — but Stallone was adamant: If he couldn’t play Rocky, then nobody could.
“I never would have sold it,” Stallone said in his Times interview. “I would have hated myself for selling out, the way we hate most people for selling out. My wife agreed and said she’d be willing to move to a trailer in the middle of a swamp if need be.”
That wasn’t necessary, but the producers had some conditions when they finally relented: Stallone was given just $1 million and 30 days to make the film. If the production went over budget or ran out of time, they would cast someone else in the role.
Stallone accepted the challenge, and filming was completed in 28 days.
“He had conviction. I realized that he had great focus and courage in not selling that script,” Talia Shire, who plays Rocky’s shy love interest and later wife, Adrian, told Philadelphia Magazine in 2016. She too was almost passed over: Producers were looking at Bette Midler and even Cher, but Stallone knew he needed someone different. He had seen Shire in The Godfather and been impressed by her performance, and when she came in to read for the part…magic. They had instant chemistry. The part was hers, and like Stallone and fellow costars Burgess Meredith (Mickey) and Burt Young (Paulie), she would be nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal.
Like Winkler and Chartoff, Shire knew the script was a winner. In a 2016 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, she said, “I cannot tell you how the gods put together that moment in time. Rocky was brilliant on the page. We had a great director, and we were blessed by not having any money, because it gave us permission to be creative. We relied on each other as acting partners, as a true ensemble.”
TV Guide Magazine’s Rocky 50th Anniversary Special Issue is available for order online now at Rocky.TVBooks.com, and for purchase on newsstands nationwide.