In this rare behind-the-scenes footage, Sylvester Stallone is filmed choreographing what would become a classic fight scene with Carl Weathers, aka ‘Apollo Creed’, for the seminal movie, ‘Rocky.’
Prior to ‘Rocky’, Stallone was just a struggling actor living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in California, who had become so poor that he couldn’t afford to feed his own dog and was forced to sell him for $25.
However, one night after watching a fight between Muhammed Ali and Chuck Wepner, Stallone became inspired and wrote the screenplay for ‘Rocky’ in just a matter of days.
A few weeks later, after failing to land a role at a casting call, Stallone managed to convince the producers to take a look at his script, and they liked what they saw enough to make him an offer of $25,000 for it.
Despite having just $106 to his name, Stallone refused to accept a deal unless he was allowed to take the starring role in the movie.
The producers initially balked at that and even went as far as to offer him $350,000 to just sell them the script and allow a bigger name actor to take the lead, but in the end they reluctantly agreed to let Stallone star as ‘Rocky’, with the concession that he’d only be paid $35,000.
For the record, Stallone then went back to the person he’d sold his dog to, and bought him back, though his owner played hardball and it ended up costing the actor $15,000.
Stallone put his heart and soul into the project, as can be seen in this video of him choreographing every punch of his fight with Weathers, aka ‘Apollo Creed’, as well as being the writer and lead actor.
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The movie was filmed on a small budget of just $1 million with mostly hand-held cameras and took just 28 days to complete, yet it would go on to become the highest-grossing film of 1976 and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning three, including ‘Best Picture.’
The film’s success propelled Stallone to become a movie star icon, which he remains to this day, and it’s to his credit that even now, at 70-years-old, he still has the same tireless work ethic he had back then, including writing, directing, producing and starring in his all-star movie franchise, ‘The Expendables’.
